Butler County Court shouldn’t be lenient with the five county prison inmates accused of obtaining heroin and hypodermic needles May 11 while on a work detail at the Butler Farm Show grounds.

Meanwhile, the incident shouldn’t be a basis for ending or scaling back low-risk inmates from participating in such work activities. A work detail is better than the inmates using the time for recreational or other non-productive activities within the prison walls.

But last month’s incident requires additional precautions to make such drug-related activities less likely in the future. In addition, the incident requires greater accountability from those involved in coordinating such work details, and scheduling and supervising inmate participants.

That includes limiting or forbidding the inmates’ contact with anyone not part of the detail, except in an emergency.

In the May 11 incident, the heroin and syringes allegedly were obtained from a summer employee at the Farm Show grounds — certainly not a measure of comfort for Farm Show, as well as county, officials.

County Commissioner Dale Pinkerton offered a good idea — that any prisoner who abuses the work privilege be banned from future community service. County President Judge Thomas Doerr has suggested background checks of those who might come in contact with inmates involved in such work, and that too is a reasonable step, although perhaps cumbersome.

Warden Rick Shaffer says the only way the prison can ensure inmates aren’t smuggling items into the prison by way of their body cavities is to install equipment such as an X-ray machine.

That’s an acquisition the county should consider.

But the most immediate impact should be meting out tough penalties to those involved in the May 11 incident. That could be the best deterrent to future incidents — unless a prisoner prefers being behind bars.

For now, the immediate response should be to thoroughly dissect the May 11 incident to determine how it could have been avoided. And, if there was any uncalled-for lapse in supervision, county officials should impose appropriate disciplinary measures on those responsible.

Shaffer is correct that there’s no easy solution — and that if an inmate is sentenced to community service “you need to make it work.”

“Obviously, the best way to prevent this is to prevent the exchange itself,” Shaffer said.

But even making inmates inaccessible to the public isn’t a foolproof answer. Illegal contraband could be dropped off at a work site prior to inmates coming to the site, if inmates know in advance where they’ll be working.

It’s understandable that the May 11 incident might have caused some people to question the worth of the program, and caused concern about the possibilility that something much more serious might someday emanate from such a work detail.

That possibility always will remain, no matter what precautions are implemented.

One key is to make it clear that such incidents will carry a steep price.