Butler County Prison Warden Richard Shaffer wants a nurse added to the facility’s midnight shift, saying there has been a “noticeable” increase in overnight medical incidents.

The request would add a single nurse to the prison’s 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, and cost about $43,000 for the remainder of 2015. Next year the cost of the additional nurse would be about $76,000. The position would come under the county’s contract with Wexford Health Services.

Shaffer said Monday at the county commissioners meeting that all of the incidents have involved inmates, and none were violent. Specific figures on the incidents weren’t immediately available Monday.

Commissioner Dale Pinkerton said he was in favor of the move, calling the additional coverage “something we absolutely have to have.”

Commissioner Jim Eckstein said he wanted specific figures from prison administrators on the overnight incidents before he voted on the request.

Shaffer said the move would bring the county prison in-line with most other county-run facilities, most of which already have 24-hour, on-site medical coverage.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Shaffer said.

For serious medical problems, the facility dispatches two guards with an inmate for the ambulance trip to the hospital, Shaffer said. Those guards are then relieved at the hospital by sheriff’s deputies.

In less serious situations, inmates are taken to the hospital by deputies.

Currently the prison has three nurses, all during day shifts, Shaffer said.