Butler County is no stranger to the costs of housing inmates at prisons outside the county. During the last years of the old, small and crowded prison on Vogely Street, "overflow" prisoners were housed at a number of other counties' prisons.

That out-of-county housing added up to a significant annual expense paid out of this county's general fund budget. That obligation evaporated once the new prison on Washington Street became operational earlier this summer and local prisoners were brought back home.

With such extensive experience in paying for out-of-county prisoner housing, the county prison board should have no difficulty settling on a reasonable rate for others who choose to house their overflow prisoners here because of their own space limitations.

In addition to inmates from other county prisons, the new local prison will be able to house state and federal prisoners.

The key to the local space is to ensure flexibility regarding the size of the Butler County prison population, while making excess space available to others.

At Tuesday's county prison board meeting, the need to establish a daily rate for the new facility was discussed. There was agreement that such a rate would be needed soon, and presumably the homework required before setting a rate or rates won't be delayed.

There are guidelines under which local officials will have to work. For example, this county won't be able to charge the state and federal governments excessive rates while charging other counties a fee more in line with what this county formerly paid to others.

Establishing fees will involve discussion, but making the determinations shouldn't be very difficult.

In the end, the money received from others should help this county's officials better deal with the additional costs involved in running a larger prison.

Some of the benefits of having the new, larger prison, including the surplus of space, were discussed at Tuesday's meeting, but the fees for housing non-Butler County prisoners remains an important piece of unfinished business that must be addressed.

While accepting significant numbers of others' prisoners immediately would have been premature — local officials have needed time to get the new facility fully up and running and address minor problems — it won't be long until local officials and the prison staff are comfortable with the challenge of dealing with a significantly larger inmate population resulting from needs emanating from outside this county.

Local officials should not delay that opportunity unnecessarily.

The final cost of the new prison will be more than $10 million higher than the initial $30 million estimate. It's important that the facility be operated in the taxpayers' best interests, and having too much vacant space would be contrary to that goal.

County officials need to establish out-of-county rates as soon as possible and take full advantage of the money-making opportunities that the new prison makes available.