Jail meeting produced bickering, no results

Aside from some bickering between the two sides, a nearly two hour meeting between members of the Whitley County Fiscal Court and the jailer and his staff Monday morning produced almost no meaningful results except for perhaps the airing of some dirty laundry.
Monday’s meeting brought about some heated debate, and discussions centering on some of the following:
• Staffing at the jail, whether the jail was complying with fiscal court demands on the number of employees, and whether that number of employees could adequately run the jail.
• Much needed repairs that need to be done at the facility, which is less than a year old.
• The hiring of a former inmate as a jail cook by the current jail administration days after she was released on bond on a charge of manufacturing methamphetamine.
• The employment of a convicted felon at the jail by a previous jail administration.
• The hiring of 13 new deputy jailers to replace departing employees, some of whom were dismissed due to failed drug tests.
Whitley County Judge-Executive Mike Patrick scheduled the special meeting between magistrates and Jailer Jerry Taylor last week after announcing that the jail would probably finish the fiscal year, which ends June 30, nearly $550,000 over budget.
Another purpose of the meeting was also to discuss estimates by Patrick and his staff that the jail was over its cap of 32 full-time employees, and Taylor’s claims that he is complying with that demand leaving the jail without enough manpower.
Figures disclosed during Monday’s meeting show that the jail’s financial situation isn’t quite as bad as first thought.
Due to the housing of nearly 100 Knox County prisoners and over a dozen McCreary County prisoners per day, Taylor is estimating the Whitley County Jail will make about $350,000 more than was projected in this fiscal year’s budget.
The original budget estimated that the jail would be holding 70 inmates for other counties. The Whitley County Jail is currently charging Knox County $26.50 a day per inmate.
“We’ve never had as many Whitley Countians in the jail as we’ve had people from Knox County,” Taylor noted.
As of Sunday afternoon, 87 people from Whitley County were lodged in the jail, 112 from Knox County, and 12 people from McCreary County for a total of 201 inmates in a jail designed to house 150.
Even with the additional revenue from holding out of county inmates, this still leaves the county with a nearly $200,000 hole to plug in the jail budget, which Taylor said he doesn’t think can be reduced significantly.
Taylor said he thinks the jail could be operating at a $100,000 profit annually by next November.

Staffing questions
During last week’s fiscal court meeting, Patrick noted that his staff had reviewed payroll sheets for a pay period in January, which indicated that the jail was working about six people more they were supposed to.
Taylor said during that pay period, the jail was training three new employees, which added more people than normal to shifts. In addition, several people were out sick during that time, and others were on vacation.
“We have 31.5 employees, and I might add that’s not enough,” Taylor said.
Taylor said he was initially told by Jim Woodrum, a criminal justice consultant working for the county, that 35 to 38 people would be needed to run the jail.
Woodrum said he doesn’t recall that conversation, and that his analysis shows that about 32 full-time employees are needed to run it based on the size of the facility.
Taylor told magistrates that he needs at least 35 employees.
Chief Deputy Jailer Jerry Allen Taylor said that in light of the current cutbacks, “I don’t think anybody feels safe working there.”
Jerry Allen Taylor asked the fiscal court to have a second staffing analysis done by an outside group that also takes into consideration the housing of at least 200 inmates per day, which is at least 50 more than the jail was designed to hold.

Jailers perform several duties
Jerry Taylor said deputy jailers are needed for several duties at the jail besides merely guarding prisoners there at the facility.
“It takes people. You don’t do them with figures,” he noted.
For instance, during first shift on Monday and Tuesday when district court is being conducted, Taylor said the jail has to have at least 12 employees on duty.
During those days, two deputy jailers have to accompany prisoners to district court, and more are sometimes needed if circuit court is going.
In addition, there are two cooks, two office workers, and one person, who works solely in the medication room to get medicine ready for over 200 prisoners daily.
Deputy jailers are also needed to perform other duties, like serving the 600 plus meals per day to prisoners.
Three groups of ministers come to the jail each week to conduct church services, and more would like to. When this happens, deputy jailers have to get the inmates out of their cells and take them to the service and back.
When lawyers come to visit clients, deputy jailers have to get the inmates from their cells and return them.
The jail has three phone lines, and Taylor said you would be hard pressed to get through on any of the lines because people are constantly calling with questions such as when such and such has to go to court, or what their bond is.
When Knox County comes for their inmates to take them to court, deputy jailers have to find their cell, and get them out.
“When they bring them back, we have to search each one of them when they come back,” Taylor noted.

Construction problems
“We didn’t create that monster up there that monster was sitting up there waiting on us, and there are things up there today that are still not completed,” Taylor told magistrates.
Taylor said since inmates were moved to the jail on Aug. 18 – Aug. 20, some things in the $7 million facility have never worked correctly.
Taylor said the jail currently has a boiler in one portion of the jail, which has to be reset about a dozen times per day, and hasn’t worked right
Taylor said electrical wires have been run into the cells because no outlets were placed in there in order to run coffee pots.
Woodrum noted that the cells weren’t designed to have outlets for coffee pots.
In some instances wires weren’t run to outlets in the cells designed to provide power for television sets in the cells, jail officials said.
Jerry Allen Taylor said that there are two heating units on the roof that are currently not working properly. In addition, at least three doors, which are supposed to open automatically, have to be opened manually.
Woodrum noted that the facility passed several state inspections before it opened, but he concedes some things might have been missed.
Woodrum said he could contact the contractor about the boiler problem.

Former inmate hired
Patrick said he found out last week that Taylor apparently hired a former inmate to work at the facility.
Last week, he said a young woman had come into his office concerned about making sure she got her last paycheck from the jail after being let go.
“When I got to looking into it, I found that she had been arrested for I think manufacturing methamphetamine, and had spent over 30 days in the jail. On the day she got out of jail, she was hired as a deputy jailer,” Patrick said.
Taylor said Siler didn’t work as a deputy jailer, but rather as a cook.
“She cooked in the kitchen as a trustee,” Taylor said. “Yes, I did hire her for those two or three days. I paid her for them.”
Other jail officials noted that the woman has not been convicted of the crime.
“She wasn’t convicted, but I did find it a little strange that you hire someone at the detention center that had just gotten out of jail,” Patrick responded to a question from a deputy jailer.
Jerry Allen Taylor noted that pretrial officers who will soon be doing background checks on all employees before the fiscal court is asked to approve their hiring.

Felon employed under Patrick
In response to Patrick bringing up the subject of the former inmate working at the jail, Taylor asked Patrick if he remembered having a former felon working for him while he served as jailer.
Patrick said that he wasn’t aware at the time that the man was a convicted felon even though he had run a background check.
“I did check, but I don’t think we found that,” Patrick said.
Taylor said the man’s application listed that he was a felon, but that it had been marked through.

Hirings approved
During Monday’s meeting, the fiscal court approved the hiring of 13 new deputy jailers, who replaced former deputy jailers, who Taylor had listed as being laid off.
Taylor said at least one of the employees was let go for health reasons because they couldn’t perform the job any more.
“Some of the others would have been because they didn’t pass the urine test. I didn’t outright fire anybody. I gave them the opportunity to draw their unemployment,” Taylor said.

Drug war means more inmates
Each day the jail admits 15 people per day, but only averages releasing 13 people per day.
Taylor said many people seem to be pleased with the UNITE drug program, but the arrest of several people on drug charges has had unintended effects on county jails.
“Over night, we have become a drug rehab center. Where are they going besides our jails that is a very burdensome task,” Taylor said. “We have three people up there right now that methamphetamine has just eaten up. This one young girl’s arms are unbelievable. Her face is just eaten up. We have a young man up there that is trying to get off methadone. It is a bad situation.
“We have people up there with Hepatitis C, heart monitors, those who have to have their blood pressure checks. It takes people to do this,” Taylor said.
In an effort to get back some of the jail medical costs, Jerry Allen Taylor said jail officials will soon start charging Whitley County inmates a $5 co-pay to go see the jail nurse, and a $20 co-pay to go see the doctor.
In addition, Jerry Allen Taylor said the inmates will have to buy over the counter medications through the jail canteen.
He said the new charges will probably cut down on the number of inmates asking to see the doctor or the nurse.

Problems still there
“Today we have talked a lot and been on both sides of an issue. I still feel that we are looking a problem dead in the eye, and we have to come up with a way to handle it. We don’t have a way to put $250,000 or $300,000 more in the operation of the jail. We have got to look for some way to either eliminate that need, or to work toward eliminating that need,” Patrick said.
Patrick said he would be coming up to the jail to review things up there, as Taylor has asked him to do. Patrick also invited Taylor to attend every fiscal court meeting.
Taylor said he’s not sure that he will be able to attend all meetings.
Patrick added that there still appears to be a gap that needs to be closed, but he said it might not be as bad as first feared.

Both sides talking?
Toward the close of Monday’s meeting, Magistrate Johnny Lawson noted, “I would like to see you (Taylor) and Mike sit down together.”
After the meeting both Patrick and Taylor told reporters that they would sit down to discuss the jail situation.