RUGBY, N.D. (AP) - A regional jail and drug treatment center that opened about six months ago needs more prisoners to make ends meet, its administrator says.

The North Central Corrections and Rehabilitation Center in Rugby has stopped repaying about $6.5 million in loans to a federal rural development fund and three banks.

The $7.6 million center opened in September. It has room for 80 jail inmates and 40 beds for drug treatment. Its current inmate population totals 69.

"The original plan had us to capacity within three months and that's not very realistic," administrator Elaine Little said. "We know that now."

The center got fewer inmates than expected from the state and area counties.

"We would need another 30 to 35 inmates to cash flow," Little said. "And that's really the difference between what the area counties had estimated and what the actual numbers are."

Officials at the federal Agriculture Department's rural development agency in Bismarck are working with the center on a new loan repayment schedule.

Little believes the prisoner numbers will grow.

"Given a few more months here," she said, "I think we'll be fine."

The center employs about 35 people in the Rugby area with a monthly payroll of more than $100,000.