Kentucky county jails ask for more state help, citing financial woes

Overcrowding and budget shortfalls have long plagued Kentucky county jails. Just under 40% of people in state custody are held in local jails as of April 15, according to Kentucky Department of Corrections data . The state pays a reimbursement rate for all state-incarcerated people along with other state funding allotments. For county jails, that state funding is a sizable portion of their budget.

Rowan County Judge Executive Harry Clark said costs in nearly every category have increased substantially in the last five years for his jail — food, medicine, cleaning.

“I'll be quite honest with you,” Clark told an interim legislative committee Monday. “If you gave us all the money we needed today, if we don't come up with a long-term solution, I'm going to be back in here in two more years.”

Hardin County Attorney Jenny Oldham said their county jail is a “priority” for her as a prosecutor but that paying for it also takes away from the other functions of county government.

“You know, you're never going to have a bigger library,” Oldham said.

Cost concerns at the jail also bleed into her work as a prosecutor, influencing her decisions.

“I don't want plea agreements completely driven by the cost of incarceration, but as a responsible county government official that has to go into the calculus,” Oldham said.

Oldham said that sometimes, the medical costs of housing an inmate turns into a reason not to pursue prosecution. She told the committee Monday she has had to show leniency to people because their medication is too expensive for the county jail to manage. Oldham said she does not keep track of those decisions when they happen.

“Those aren't decisions that are made on the record that the public can weigh in, that they can hold us accountable for,” Oldham said. “We're having to release inmates based on their medications [being] too expensive.”

Earlier this month, the omnibus crime legislation the Safer Kentucky Act went into effect . Among other things, it increased the penalty for a number of crimes. Oldham said she was in favor of such legislation, but that lawmakers should consider how prosecutors and jails work together to hold those people in custody — and whether they can afford to do it .

Sen. Damon Thayer, the Republican floor leader from Georgetown, was unsympathetic to the county officials’ concerns, telling his fellow lawmakers to “get used to this.” Thayer decided not to run for reelection this year — a decision he expressed relief for given the topic at hand.

“It feels like Groundhog Day,” Thayer said, referring to repeated requests for state funding from county jail officials. “But guess what? Come January, I won't have to listen to it anymore. It's glorious.”

In 2021, the state allocated American Rescue Plan Act dollars at the last minute to include some additional performance-based funding for jails and certain funding only available only as long as COVID-19 emergency declarations lasted.

Republican Sen. Greg Elkins from Winchester said state and federal requirements put heavy constraints on jails looking to cut costs, leaving them little wiggle room. He asked about other solutions to decrease jail burdens, like speeding up court proceedings to get people moving in and out of jails faster.

“I know that almost all of the expenses that go towards operating a jail or personnel, and then the remaining is food and medical,” Elkins said. “I know that there's very little you can do to control expenses. So you have to look at revenue.”

State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.