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Overcrowding Crisis

Overcrowding Crisis

Kentucky Jails Sue State for Fair Payments

Overcrowding Crisis The American State of Kentucky becomes the latest target of a lawsuit filed by jailors due to rampant soaring numbers of housed inmates causing a drying up of funds for staff working in counties.

Daily costs paid for state offenders spending time in county jails are insufficient.

The state agency has violated the statute to facilitate fairly paying the counties for housing, medical, and other expenditures.

Two jailers from northern Kentucky’s Campbell County and Kenton County, with jailers; Bill Hensley from northeastern Kentucky’s Boyd County and J. Barry Brady from Marion County, filed the lawsuit. Plaintiffs in the case also include the Kentucky Jailers Association and their respective county governments.

More About Overcrowding Crisis 

The overcrowding crisis has caused a lack of beds, personnel shortages, insufficient funds, and covid exposures to an alarming degree.

The DOC is required to transfer a person to the state assessment facility for processing, booking, and medical evaluation once they have been ordered to spend their term in state prison. The state commissioner of prisons is also among the defendants of the suit.

The assessment center has 730 beds, but almost 2,000 offenders are waiting on the waiting list. Additionally, assessment- the facility does the processing, booking, and medical evaluation of prisoners.

Jails are not compensated sufficiently by state corrections departments for keeping state convicts, which has become challenging for jail staff.

On the other hand, the provision of crucial services; medical treatment, medication, and psychiatric assistance for inmates has become difficult.

They are asking a judge to decide, among other things, that the state must adhere to Kentucky law and make specific payments to regional jails. According to the lawsuit, state law mandates that counties get at least $24,000 annually from the prison department to care for detainees accused or found guilty of violating state law.

According to the lawsuit, the state has frequently failed to provide necessary payments” and hasn’t signed contracts with counties outlining how inmates are held in rural jails. Instead, the lawsuit asserts that the state makes daily payments.

As of December 1, 2022, there were 9,569 state inmates housed in county jails, according to data from the correctional department that was part of the complaint. Because there aren’t enough beds, people are forced to sleep next to each other on floors in many Kentucky jails due to the weight of housing state inmates.

The Corrections Department said in a written statement that it had not yet received notice of the lawsuit.

Because there aren’t enough beds, people are forced to sleep next to each other on floors in many Kentucky jails due to the weight of housing state inmates.

The data has revealed that there were more state detainees in county jails in 2022 than the previous year, and the final three months of 2021 featured the jail population in the lawsuit.

A new lawsuit claims that the Kentucky Department of Corrections fleeces local taxpayers out of tens of millions of dollars each year by ordering the detention of thousands of state prisoners in county jails without compensating the county governments for the cost.

The Kentucky Jailers Association and the elected jailers; in Boyad, Campbell, Kenton, and Marion counties filed the lawsuit against the state Corrections Department on January 20 in Franklin Circuit Court.

In their complaint, the jailers contend that counties unfairly bear the cost of housing, feeding, and providing medical and psychological care for state prisoners. The lawsuit claims that by doing this, counties have less money to meet jailers’ needs.

The lack of beds forces people to sleep close to one another on floors and squeeze into any available space, which adds to the dangerous overcrowding in many Kentucky jails.

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