County jail challenges discussed by General Assembly interim committee

Photo: Committee on Judiciary Co-Chairman Rep. Jason Petrie, R-Elkton, fields questions during testimony from the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Friday/ LRC photo

Overcrowding and other potential issues facing county jails were addressed Friday during a meeting of the Interim Joint Judiciary Committee.

Co-chaired by Senator Whitney Westerfield of Christian County and Representative Jason Petrie of Elkton, members heard from Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary John Tilley—a former representative from Hopkinsville.

Tilley called state incentives that have led to county jail overcrowding “perverse,” and called for legislative changes that he said could lower the number of state inmates in jails by up to one-third.

He says 76 of the state’s 82 county jails currently house around half of the state inmate population, with 29 jails at or over 150 percent capacity. The jails are paid by the state $31.34 per day for each Class D (and in some cases, Class C) state inmate they house, while housing a state inmate in a Kentucky prison costs about $71 a day.

Secretary Tilley said the state incentives create “a perverse financial incentive” for county jail, adding “It’s a situation they didn’t create, but as a bottom-line decision for them – how could they not want to balance their budget if we have inmates that are in need of housing?”

He clarified that he doesn’t see the problem as the fault of county jailers, as they are “saddled with an impossible task.”

Most jails in Kentucky are also having a difficult time hiring and retaining employees, leading to understaffing.

Tilley said increasing the Class D felony theft threshold to $2500 from the current amount of $500 and reducing penalties for low-level possession of controlled substances to misdemeanors could help to reduce the number of state inmates in county jails by up to one-third without irreparably harming county budgets or public safety.

County jails across Kentucky, including in Christian and Todd counties, rely heavily on revenue from housing state inmates to balance their budgets and to pay the bills. In fact, the Christian County Jail was financially self-sufficient during the last fiscal year, not requiring any of the $1 million that had been budgeted to come out of the county’s general fund, thanks in large part to those revenues. The Christian County Jail also houses Trigg County’s inmates and has had contracts to take in inmates who are in transport.

Todd County Jailer Jeff Penick reported at Friday morning’s Todd Fiscal Court meeting that of the 136 inmates housed there, 121 were state inmates. Todd County relies heavily on a healthy state inmate count to service the debt on the jail.

Tilley said the potential impact of reduced state inmate populations on counties could be lessened through a cost-sharing formula that has been discussed for at least two years. The idea would be for further reforms to have what Tilley called a “net-neutral effect” on counties in terms of cost, through some sort of cost-sharing arrangement.

He also acknowledged that reducing some drug possession charges to misdemeanors and reducing the threshold for felony theft could also mean an increased burden of local inmates in jails, adding that is one reason why there needs to be a net-neutral agreement with counties in terms of cost, but less of a criminal justice response in terms of incarceration.

Tilley said, “With possession only, I think we would all agree (that) typically denotes addiction, and I think we could divert those offenders into treatment. It will shift that cost, but the idea would be that we need to move away from a criminal justice response if we’re talking about a public health disease, again, addiction.”