SMITH COUNTY — A group of community leaders will meet Thursday to discuss how to reduce the population of the Smith County Jail.

The meeting comes as the Smith County Jail population remains at its highest level since the county built and opened a new jail in early 2015.

The group, called the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee, will meet at 2 p.m. Thursday at the Smith County Courthouse Annex Building, 200 E. Ferguson St.

The jail population rose to 763 inmates in the beginning of March, according to data from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards.

The Smith County Sheriff’s Office, which runs the jail, reported that number increased to 839 in April. On Monday, the population was back down to 774.

The numbers are the highest in three years, but lower than they were more than a decade ago, when county officials were concerned about jail overpopulation. The numbers are also lower than the more than 1,100 inmates the jail is big enough to house.

However, the rising population has prompted the county to seek new contracts for jail services to avoid spending too much money. It also has prompted discussion on the issue at weekly meetings of the Smith County Commissioners Court.

Commissioner Joann Hampton, who sits on the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee, said in April that the Thursday meeting would be a roundtable discussion from different stakeholders, including jail administrators and people who specialize in social services, among others.

“The deal is to bring all the stakeholders to the table to discuss why our jail population is going up and what we can do to bring it back down, because the deal is we built a new jail, but we don’t really want to fill it up,” Hampton said.

“How do we get the population back down?” Hampton said. “Is it because we’re setting bonds too high? Is it the time of year when crime really goes up? What is the problem? Why is it happening?”