LYONS ? Rice County Jail has lost thousands of dollars in revenue as other counties have begun to pull their inmates out of the jail following a county commission decision to raise rates for housing out-of-county prisoners.

The commission voted three weeks ago to raise the standard daily rate for out-of-county inmates from $35 to $50, said Rice County Sheriff Dale Higgins. The rate is set to start July 1; the rate paid by communities within the county will stay the same.

Sedgwick County, the largest out-of-county user, has already taken most of its prisoners from the local jail because of the increase.

“We were up to 30 prisoners there at one time,” said Capt. Glenn Kurtz, who commands the support division of the Sedgwick County Jail. “(Monday) morning we were down to nine, and they’ll be out by next week.”

Officials in Johnson County said they also might remove prisoners after the rate changes.

The rate increase, said Rice County Commission Chairman Jake Bray, was in response to the cost of running the jail and Sedgwick County deciding to charge other communities a higher rate for using its jail.

“We felt like we were losing money,” Bray said. “It’s strictly a monetary thing.”