The Butler County prison brought in more than $2 million in revenue from January through October.

According to county controller records, the prison generated $2.1 million, exceeding the nearly $1.9 million budgeted for the year.

Most of the revenue, $2 million, is due to the county housing state and federal inmates in the South Washington Street prison.

Prison revenue offsets the budgeted $10.6 million cost to operate the jail.

County Commissioner Dale Pinkerton, prison board chairman, said in an interview the revenue helps the bottom line.

“This isn’t a profit,” Pinkerton said. “It reduces the cost to the taxpayers.”

Helping county coffers would be the possible influx of inmates from other counties.

Warden Rick Shaffer said at the prison board meeting Tuesday that Fayette County, which has an overcrowded prison, may begin sending some of its inmates to Butler again.

Shaffer explained Fayette officials recently opted to not build a new jail. However, he said there’s no guarantee Fayette will resume using Butler’s prison.

“That remains to be seen,” Shaffer said.

However, he said Elk County has expressed interest in sending prisoners to Butler.

The county charges other counties a daily rate of $60 per inmate.

Along with housing inmates from other counties again, Butler may increase its federal prisoner population, which numbered 53 as of Tuesday.

Shaffer said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, more commonly known as ICE, wants to use the Butler prison as a stopover for apprehended illegal immigrants.

Shaffer said those prisoners would then be sent to either York County, which is an ICE hub, or deported.

ICE would be charged the same rate as the U.S. Marshal’s Office, a daily rate of $76.

Commissioner Bill McCarrier asked Shaffer if there would be any issues housing inmates who do not speak English.

Shaffer said there have been no problems in the past as basic communication with the inmates was sufficient.

“They’re usually not a problem,” he said.

Shaffer said inmate handbooks also will be printed in Spanish.

As of Tuesday, there were 28 state inmates out of a total 377 inmates in the Butler prison. The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections pays a daily rate of $70 per inmate.

Pinkerton said during the interview the increase of inmate housing revenue is not a surprise.

“We felt very confident because Rick did his homework,” he said. “We felt all along it would continue to grow.”