The rate the county will charge the city to incarcerate its prisoners at the detention center just might cause sticker shock.

Cherokee County Interim Administrator Ben Clary said it will cost $50.10 a day to house a city inmate at the detention center. That's up nearly $6 from the previous rate of $44.32.

The new rate is retroactive to July 1. The per diem rate is based on the previous fiscal year's overall operational costs at the county jail. Obviously, Clary said those costs jumped substantially, in part because of salary increases for jail workers and a hike in the jail bond payment from $575,000 to $600,000.

Another reason for the increase is that those costs were spread among fewer inmates.

"The fewer the inmates the more the per diem cost," Clary said.

Several years ago, a controversy erupted when the city's finance committee balked at paying the county's proposed jail fee that rose from $32.81 to $42.17 per inmate.

The two sides wrangled for more than six months before the city agreed to pay the fees, which dropped after a computer glitch was discovered that overestimated the number of days city prisoners were housed at the detention center.