Keeping jails operational from jailer’s perspective

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Cathie Shaffer

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January 23, 2008

CATHIE SHAFFER The Daily Independent Wed Jan 23, 2008, 12:27 AM EST

Greenup — Jim Womack knows exactly what the jailer’s office looked like when the Greenup County Detention Center opened in 1990. He walks across the same carpet and sits at the same desk today as county jailer.

“Everything in this place is 17 years old,” he said with a shake of his head. “We’ve got all we can do to keep this place running without worrying about updating it.

“When something breaks, we fix it, and that’s about all we can do. Anytime we can get ahead of the game, it’s a good day.”

Like other jails in the state, Womack’s routinely houses more prisoners than it was designed for on a budget that’s too small. The Greenup jail was originally designed to hold 88 prisoners, was changed to allow 96 and has an average population of 118.

Womack’s $1.2 million budget is stretched to the limit, and it’s customary for every meeting of the Greenup County Fiscal Court to involve some discussion of jail costs. Womack says his daily cost to keep a prisoner last year was $29, well under the state average of $34 and the national average of $54. But the county still had to kick in nearly $90,000 last year to balance the jail budget.

That burden lies on the county because of a lack of funds from the state, says Bobby Waits, Shelby County jailer and president of the Kentucky Jailers’ Association.

He points out that funding has been provided to streamline court loads and to put more police on the street, but jails haven’t benefited in the same way, and most operate in the red.

“We’re the bad stepchild,” he says. “The public doesn’t care what happens in jails. They have a ‘bread and water’ mentality, and it affects the way legislators think.

“Why can they find $70 million for an arena or millions for roads, but no money for jails? Because jails don’t get them votes, while arenas and road improvements do.”

Among the problems county jails face, Waits says, is the length of time for which the county is responsible for a prisoner. Inmates with misdemeanors are county prisoners; those committing felonies are state prisoners. However, the state doesn’t start to pay the cost of incarceration until final sentencing, which means the county might pay to keep that prisoner for weeks or months.

That includes not only housing and feeding prisoners to state standards, but the cost of medical care. In Greenup County, the detention center has contracted with a local physician to make weekly visits and come at other times when necessary. If inmates have money in the commissary fund, Womack said, they pay $20 for the visit and the cost of any medicine. If not, the county foots the bill.

Complicating things are less obvious costs, Womack says.

“Utilities have really skyrocketed, and the rise in fuel has increased our cost on things like food that have to be brought in,” he said.

What’s the solution?

Although some suggest turning jails over to the state, that’s not the solution, Waits said.

“Where are they going to get the money?” he asked. “More has to be done than just change who pays or raising taxes.”

Among those alternative measures, Waits suggests, is creating uniformity. An example is jailing those who can’t pay court fines and giving them credit for days served.

“The credit for fines varies county by county, from as low as $2 a day to $25, which is less than it costs to keep a prisoner,” he says.

Waits says another place where uniformity standards are needed is in bonds.

“An offense that brings a low bond in one county may be a high bond in another,” he said, adding that high bonds will keep those people in jails and increase the problem.

The war on drugs is one of the reasons Waits gives for the pinch county jails are in, citing statistics: The number of prisoners in Kentucky jails has jumped from an average of 2,000 to an average of 9,000 over 20 years.

“Sixty to 80 percent of jail inmates are there on drug charges or drug-related charges like bad checks and theft,” he says.

In Greenup County, Womack says, the percentage is closer to 85 percent.

“Drug court is a great thing,” he says, “but it’s going to take time to make a difference. We’re real lucky here, though, because we’ve got a good relationship with our judges.

“If I get in a serious overcrowding situation, I can call the judge and we can usually lower it a little by putting some people on home incarceration or letting them out a day or two early. But that’s not a solution; it’s just a Band-Aid fix.

“All we can do, really, is hold on and hope we find a way out.”

CATHIE SHAFFER is editor of the Greenup County News-Times. She can be reached at cshaffer@dailyindependent.com or (606) 473-9851.

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