Butler County Prison inmates will be able to interact with their children next year if they are being serviced by county Children and Youth Services.

The prison board this morning approved a new program in which a CYS worker and a corrections officer will supervise the visits inside the prison.

The only contact permitted now between prisoners and their children are typical facility visits in which inmates may see visitors through a partition and talk on telephones.

The new program may eventually be expanded to include children of inmates who are not serviced by CYS, but won’t initially.