The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The bill, which was discussed Tuesday by the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee, would raise the daily rate the state pays county jails per inmate from $26.51 to $30.51 during fiscal year 2005-06 and would raise the rate to $34.51 in 2006-07. After that, the rate would be adjusted annually based on increases in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers.

House Bill 500 also calls for the state to reimburse county jails for state prisoners' medical costs beginning in 2007-08 and to give county jails, beginning in 2008, 50 percent of the daily rate for inmates who were housed in county jails and had time served credited to a sentence. The time served rate would increase to 100 percent in 2009-10. County jails holding inmates on state charges do not receive the daily rate until the person being held is convicted.

The bill also calls for the state to assume full responsibility for housing all prisoners in Kentucky in 2010 and make county jailers part of the state corrections system. Jailers would still be elected in their counties.

Vince Lang, executive director of the Kentucky County Judge-Executives Association, said housing state prisoners -- and paying their medical costs -- is straining county budgets.

"The costs associated with housing prisoners have deprived counties" of funds for other projects, Lang said. "County jail populations have increased tenfold. ... Many counties are contributing 20 percent of their general fund for this alone."
Inmates' medical costs have also increased, Lang said. "There has been no effort by the state to keep up with these costs," he said.

Larue County Judge-Executive Tommy Turner said counties receive a smaller daily stipend for housing state prisoners now than they received in 1982.

Committee member Rep. Stephen Nunn, a Glasgow Republican, said the state should pay a large percentage of state prisoners' medical bills. "I think we need to be paying 75 to 80 percent at least," Nunn said.

The bill was not put up for a vote Tuesday. Rep. Harry Moberly Jr., the committee's chairman, said legislators recognize counties have a problem covering the cost of state prisoners.
"I don't think there's anybody here who would disagree with what you've said," Moberly said. "We want to work with you."

Daviess County commissioners Bruce Kunze, Jim Lambert and Mike Riney attended the meeting. "Our problem is not just the daily (stipend); it's that when we incarcerate a person, the state doesn't pick up funding until they are convicted," Riney said. "In addition to considering raising the per diem, they need to consider that a state prisoner is a state prisoner" when they are incarcerated on state charges, Riney said.

The Daviess County Detention Center had 325 state prisoners, 249 Daviess County inmates and one inmate from another county on Tuesday.

Daviess County Jailer David Osborne, attending a legislative meeting of the Kentucky Jailers Association in Frankfort on Tuesday, said he and other jailers around the state are looking to state government to share more of the cost of housing and providing medical treatment to inmates.

"We're in support of anything that can ease the burden on the county taxpayers," Osborne said. "It's an issue of whether we're going to be able to raise some revenue."

A member of the jailer association's board of directors, Osborne said the association's legislative meeting was one of the best attended he's seen. "I think there is a lot of interest in it around the state in getting more support from the state," he said.

Kunze said housing state inmates was one of the main reasons Daviess Fiscal Court passed an occupational tax in 2004.
"If the jail were not an issue ... the occupational tax would not have been passed in Daviess County," Kunze said.
Rep. Derrick Graham, a Frankfort Democrat and one of the bill's sponsors, said he worked with county judge-executives and jailers while crafting the bill. Graham said he hoped the bill would be voted on by the House appropriations committee next week.

"I just filed it (Monday), and they heard it today," Graham said. "Time is of the essence."