Justice officials in Nunavut have signed a deal that will double the number of inmates serving time in Ontario facilities while local authorities search for ways to relieve chronic overcrowding at the territorial jail.

The Justice Department recently signed an agreement to send 15 adult offenders serving territorial sentences to jails in Ontario, bringing the total number of Nunavut inmates in that province to 30.

The Nunavut government has agreements with Ontario and the Northwest Territories to send offenders to correctional facilities there because of ongoing overcrowding in Iqaluit's Baffin Correctional Centre, where the territory's adult inmates are housed.

"Just this past Sunday, [we] have reconfigured an ATR aircraft and shipped 25 of our adult male offenders to Ontario facilities," Alan Hartley, Nunavut's director of corrections, said Tuesday.

"This buys us the time to explore what options we're going to find for relieving that pressure in the future."

As of this week, the new arrangement leaves 68 inmates at the Baffin Correctional Centre and 40 inmates in facilities in the Northwest Territories.

The Baffin Correctional Centre has a capacity of 65 but often houses more than that — 96 at one point last year.

A new territorial jail is scheduled to open in Rankin Inlet in 2011. As well, a separate women's facility in Iqaluit is expected to be ready next year.