By KATIE BRANDENBURG - The Independent
The Boyd County Detention Center is in the process of clearing out inmates after an inspection from the Kentucky Department of Corrections earlier this week found it was overcrowded.
Removing inmates means a loss of nearly $1 million in revenue for the detention center as well as the loss of its Substance Abuse Program, according to a press release from the detention center.
On Tuesday, when officials came to inspect the jail, the detention center was housing 356 inmates, according to the DOC. It has 206 beds.
The DOC issued an executive order capping the number of inmates the detention center was allowed to house at 220, about 10 percent more than the number of beds in the facility.
The detention center started moving inmates on Thursday.
Jailer Joe Burchett said the DOC became aware of the issue after the detention center’s weekly report on Monday.
The last DOC inspection of the facility on June 1 showed the jail had about 300 inmates.
The DOC didn’t take action before because inspectors were more concerned with confinement conditions than number of inmates, said Lisa Lamb, director of communications for the DOC.
The confinement conditions during the July inspection were the reason for the executive order, she said.
As of about 3:30 on Friday the jail had 270 inmates.
All state inmates were moved to other county detention centers by the end of Friday, Lamb said.
Burchett said he hoped to have all federal prisoners moved by Tuesday and to have the total inmate number down to 200 by the end of next week.
Participants in SAP are also being moved to Pike County Detention Center, he said.
A press release from the detention center stated that staffing, safety, sanitation and services at the center were all compromised.
Buchett said some cells designed for 10 men had up to 20.
Paula Bottoms, 42, of Greenup, said she’s upset that the jail will no longer have the SAP program.
Her son-in-law, John Herrington, 27, is an inmate and participant in SAP.
He and her daughter, Brittany Herrington, 23, were arrested in January for possession of narcotics, possession of drug paraphernalia and child endangerment. They were both addicted to OxyContin, Bottoms said.
“They put them in jail but they don’t give them the tools to learn how to deal with it,” she said.
She said SAP and the drug abuse program for women at the detention center have helped the two get clean.
Brittany Herrington was released from jail in April. She has a job and will be going to Ashland Community Technical College in January, Bottoms said.
She said the program is a loss to the community because it was one of the few drug addiction resources for those with low incomes.
“I know other parents out there are going to go through the same thing I am,” Bottoms said.
Burchett said he’s working to reduce the number of county inmates so he can bring the program back to Boyd County.
Carter County Jailer Randy Binion said Carter County Detention Center and others, especially in the eastern part of the state, suffer from overcrowding.
Much of the problems with overcrowding in the region stem from drug abuse convictions, he said. About 8 out of 10 inmates who come to Carter County have to go through detox.
The Carter County Detention Center had about 190 inmates on Friday morning with 144 beds available, he said.
“It’s a problem in every jail,” Binion said.
The detention center hasn’t hit the 144 mark for several years, he said.
Carter County Detention Center took some of the inmates from Boyd County.
The loss of state and federal inmates will also mean a loss of income for the jail and, thus, Boyd County, Burchett said.
The jail gets paid $41.50 a day for every federal inmate it houses and $31.50 a day for every state inmate it houses, he said. Removing inmates will mean a loss of nearly $1 million in revenue.
The Boyd County Detention Center was housing more than 260 county inmates as well as about 35 state inmates, 35 federal inmates and eight parole violators at the time of the DOC visit.
The jail will also have to pay to house inmates in other jails to decrease its population, Burchett said. He hopes to pay about $25 a day to house those inmates.
County Attorney Phillip Hedrick said officials would review the jail population on Monday.
He said he’s been in contact with the Department of Public Advocacy to see if the inmates in jail for nonviolent misdemeanor petty offenses could be reviewed to have their sentences modified.
