Jail can remain open, but only under supervision

The Whitley County Detention Center will remain open at least for a few more weeks.
Department of Corrections Commissioner John D. Rees ruled yesterday in a public hearing with county officials in Frankfort, that the jail could remain open but only if some changes were made immediately.
Rees told the officials they had two weeks to employ someone to serve as manager of the detention center. That person must be approved by the Department of Corrections.
Rees then turned to Jailer Jerry Taylor and said, “You do not know what is going on in that facility and it creates a danger to the employees as well as the inmates.”
The department will monitor the facility weekly to see if progress is being made in addressing the problems within the jail.
If they feel that progress is being made, the order to close the jail will be withdrawn. If they see no progress, steps will be taken to close the jail immediately.
Whitley County Judge Executive Mike Patrick requested the hearing so the county could respond to violations found during an inspection in December.
Corrections Department General Councel, Jeffrey Middendorf, showed Taylor pictures taken during a December 17 inspection.
After that inspection, the jail was told to make changes to correct the problems.
In response to the charge of male and female inmates being house together, Taylor said they were in separate wings of the building separated by a door that was not locked. He said the female trustees are constantly supervised by the cooks and the male inmates by the guards. But Taylor said changes were made after he received the letter from the department.
Taylor was questioned about the five escapes that have occurred since the jail opened eight months ago.
Four inmates escaped from an area that had a broken window. Taylor acknowledged that the hole had been there for some time but he did not know how it got there. When asked why it had not been fixed he said, “Because fiscal court won’t approve the money to fix it.”
Taylor blamed faulty construction for four of the escapes saying that when the jail was built, there were no barriers above the ceilings allowing the inmates to remove ceiling tiles and go over the wall.
He also said a picture showing extension cord being used in a cell was because no electrical outlets were installed in the cells when the building was built.
Middendorf informed Taylor that drug test were performed on three women at the jail on Wednesday and all three tested positive for marijuana.
Jail employee Brenda Taylor responded to charges that the jail had not been performing the state mandated three head counts per 24 hours.
“First shift always does it and now since this letter we do it on second and third shift too. Everybody there works hard and does their job but maybe we need more training. We just need to know more than we know. If we’re messing up we need to know it, Taylor said.
When asked what steps the jailor had taken to correct the problems since receiving the April 18 inspection, Taylor said his son said he had those taken care of except for the one that fiscal court had to vote on.
“You are the elected jailer of Whitley County yet you don’t know what steps you have taken and depend on your son to know,” Rees said.
“He’s the chief deputy. If he’s not done his job, he’ll know about it.” Taylor responded.
Rees also expressed concern about an editorial submitted last week to the Times Tribune and signed by Taylor, responding to allegations against the jail and staff.
Taylor denied having written the editorial and sending it to the paper. “I don’t care what it says, I didn’t write it,” Taylor said.
The News Journal also received a faxed copy of the editorial from the detention center.
Knox County Judge Executive Ray Smith attended the hearing and pledged to help Whitley County in fixing the problems at the jail, both financially as well as with personnel.
Smith also said Knox County would help subsidize the cost for someone from the Department of Corrections to come down and help make sure the problems are being addressed satisfactorily.
After the hearing both Patrick and Smith seemed relieved to have another chance to keep the jail open.
“With help from Knox County, we’ve been given an opportunity, now it is up to us as to what we do with it,” Patrick said.
“We’ve been given a reprieve, now we’ve got to do the right thing and work with each other. I hope personal and family issues don’t interfere. We do want to work with the jailer,” Smith said.