Photos by Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times

Selena Noell, a corrections officer at the Western Virginia Regional Jail, processes inmates Wednesday. The facility officially opened March 6, and the first inmates arrived April 9. The Roanoke County facility is capable of housing 800 inmates or more.

Josh Guttman, a corrections officer at the Western Virginia Regional Jail, searches a new inmate during processing Wednesday morning.

Charlie Poff won't be putting up the "No Vacancy" sign any time soon, but the new Western Virginia Regional Jail he oversees should be filled to just over 90 percent of its standard capacity of 605 inmates today.

Approximately 550 inmates have been moved from the Roanoke County/Salem, Franklin County and Montgomery County jails, relieving what sheriffs in each locality have called dangerous and unhealthy overcrowding.

Actually, the new regional lockup has double-bunking that will sleep up to 800 inmates, and theoretically could hold even more than that.

But for now, all of the participating localities' jails are down to their intended capacities for the first time in decades, said Poff, the regional facility's superintendent.

Although the regional jail officially opened for operations March 6, it took about a month to get everything ready for the inmates.

About 60 inmate trusties were moved into the jail on April 9. They were put to work helping with the operation of the facility, staffing areas such laundry and sanitation, Poff said.

Last Friday, 175 more inmates came in, and more have continued to arrive this week.

Poff described the transfers as smooth and said there were no security issues, but he said the flow of inmates did have to be slowed Tuesday when the number who needed medical attention exceeded expectations.

"We brought on more doctors, nurse practitioners" and registered nurses to help manage the intake, he said.

Overall, he said, "Actually, it probably went better than we expected," even with all the practice the staff went through ahead of time.