All Dane County inmates being housed at the Sauk County jail are back in Madison after the county shuffled its jail population to free up space.

"It's really not that there's necessarily more room," said Elise Schaffer, spokeswoman with the Dane County Sheriff's Office. "We reconfigured some housing at the Public Safety Building."

Dane County inmates are housed in three places: the City County Building, the Public Safety Building and the Ferris Center.

Dane County moved inmates in its work release program to the Ferris Center, "which

then allowed us to bring the inmates from Sauk back to the Public Safety Building," she said.

In 2007, Dane County contracted with Sauk County for 55 beds at about $51 per

day ($2,805 per day total), Schaffer said. If Dane County needed to rent more room, the county paid Sauk County $52 per day per inmate for the space.

Dane County did not sign a contract this year but had been renting beds on an as-needed basis at $51.46 per day. There were 33 Dane County inmates moved from Sauk County jail this week.

Officials say the county will continue renting beds from Sauk County as needed.

"We're monitoring if we have to ship inmates on a daily basis because of the cost involved," said jail administrator Capt. Jeff Teuscher. "We want to keep people here because it keeps the cost down."