Pot times July 18, 2005

Jails A Rapidly Growing Expense, Auditor Says

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1136/a07.html
Newshawk: chip

Pubdate: Sat, 16 Jul 2005
Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)
Copyright: 2005 Lexington Herald-Leader
Contact: hleditorial@herald-leader.com
Website: http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/240
Author: Brett Barrouquere, Associated Press

JAILS A RAPIDLY GROWING EXPENSE, AUDITOR SAYS

In Some Counties, They Use Up 20% Of Budget, Luallen Says

LOUISVILLE - Kentucky's county jails are a rapidly growing expense eating up increasing amounts of local resources, state Auditor Crit Luallen said Thursday.

Luallen, speaking to a gathering of county executives in Louisville, said some counties are contributing as much as 20 percent of their general funds to jails.  The crisis has reached grave proportions in some areas with the state taking over jail management or advising closure of some facilities, Luallen said.

"Jail expenditures are a rapidly growing component of county budgets, and many simply cannot remain financially viable without an ever-growing infusion of precious county resources -- resources that could be used for many other services for taxpayers," Luallen said.

Luallen used the speech to the Kentucky County Judge/Executives, Magistrates and Commissioners Convention to announce an expanded audit of county jails.  Luallen's office is sending a survey to jailers and county executives in an attempt to measure the scope of the jail funding problem, the auditor said.

The survey is 201 questions for counties with working jails.  A shorter version is going to counties without jails.  The surveys cover more than a dozen areas, including total medical expenditures and what portion is paid by the counties, meal expenses per inmate and jail phone services.

The results, which will be presented to the 2006 General Assembly, will break down each county's expenses and compare them with those of other counties in the state, Luallen said.

"You will be able to see exactly what you are getting for what you are paying," Luallen said.

Jailers will get preliminary results in December at the Kentucky Jailers Association conference at Barren River State Park.

Lt.  Gov.  Steve Pence told the gathering that some things are being done to help lower the jail population.  Pence cited efforts at providing drug rehabilitation to inmates as a way to keep inmates from returning to the prison system.

"As long as they're sitting in there, let's give them treatment," Pence said.

Pence said programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous cause the repeat-offender rate among inmates to fall into the single digits, as opposed to as high as 30 percent among untreated inmates.

"It's hard to argue with those statistics," Pence said.