Lexington — A year ago, county judge/executives from all across Kentucky were clamoring for state help for their jail costs. A year later, they aren’t hopeful.

“It’s all talk, but nothing’s happened,” said Rowan County Judge/Executive Jim Nickell. His feelings were echoed by others: Judge/Executive Mike Buchanon of Warren County, Judge/Executive Lawrence Kuhl of Laurel County, and Magistrate Howard Bowman Jr. of Barren County.

Kuhl said his county had to subsidize its jail with $500,000 from the general fund for the fiscal year just ended on June 30, driven mostly by medical costs for inmates.

“It’s the number one concern for counties, but I don’t see that much is going to happen,” he said.

In fact, what is happening – counting parole time toward sentence completion, early release of some inmates, nearly all of them from county jails, is costing counties because those are prisoners for which the state pays a per diem to counties which house them.

They were looking for good news from Gov. Steve Beshear who addressed the group Thursday afternoon – and who conceded he talked to them about jails the last time he addressed the group, at its winter conference early in 2008.

“You all now we’re in tough economic times,” Beshear said, but added that there are three areas where he thinks the state can help.

The first is the cost of inmate health care. Beshear said his administration will “aggressively negotiate” with providers for a new contract: “Price will be a key issue of a very aggressive negotiating strategy.” He’s asked the Kentucky Supreme Court to institute a uniform bail schedule which will get prisoners out on bail sooner, prisoners who before conviction are counties' responsibility rather than the state’s which doesn’t begin to pay for housing them until after they’re sentenced.

Finally, the Criminal Justice Council, headed by Beshear’s Secretary of the Justice Cabinet, J. Michael Brown, is due to deliver a report on reforming the penal code by December 1 of this year.

But those changes either involve relatively small amounts of money for counties--which cumulatively spent more than $130 million last year to subsidize their jails --or the changes will take time.

He also said commonwealth attorneys and others critical of the parole measures aren’t being helpful by “demagoguing the issue.” Several prosecutors have complained about the early releases which they contend endanger public safety. Beshear disputed that, noting all are non-violent offenders.

Beshear had a similar message on roads – something which is always important to county officials. He said money is tight in a tight state budget and while the gas tax has increased with the wholesale price of gasoline, motorists are driving less and using less gas.

He got a warmer reception in taking credit for the recently passed state pension reform legislation during a special session of the General Assembly. That bill will save county and city governments about $56 million in total with lower payments this year into the County Employee Retirement System. And Beshear – who didn’t get any of his major legislative agenda through the regular session – was proud of the way the pension bill cleared the special session with support from both parties and chambers. And he wasn’t shy about taking credit.

“I was able to bring a very divided legislature together,” Beshear said, to pass a bill which “makes the system sustainable over time.” And to those who quibble about how much the bill bolsters the viability of the pension systems, Beshear said, “Make no mistake – the recent special session and what happened was significant reform.”

He said he and legislators heard from the public after a regular session in which little was accomplished – and that led to the cooperative spirit of the special session.

“I am tired of the gridlock and it’s got to stop, and I need you to help me make it stop,” Beshear said. “When everybody went home they heard – they heard loud and clear – that you’re up there wasting our time and money. That’s the message everyone needed to hear – including me.”

Beshear told the county officials he hopes that message and the cooperation of the special session “spills over” and leads to similar cooperation on jails, roads, and local projects.



Ronnie Ellis writes of CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort, Ky. He may be contacted by email at rellis@cnhi.com.