Request By:
Mr. Calvin Stewart
Franklin County Jailer
224 St. Clair Street
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You have been instructed by the county attorney to put a prisoner on the "state books" when he is brought to jail charged with a felony. You followed that advice and lost $600 in fees because, as you put it, the Department for Finance and Administration told you that until a man is given a hearing in county court and turned over to the grand jury he is not a state prisoner. Your question is under what circumstances must the state pay the dieting fee?
KRS 64.150(3) currently provides a fee for the county jailer of $4.75 per day for keeping and dieting a prisoner "charged with a felony. " (Emphasis added).
The controlling language above is the phrase "charged with a felony. " The state must pay the dieting fee only if and only so long as the prisoner is charged with a felony.
Thus if the prisoner is brought to the county jail under an arrest, but where the arresting officer makes the arrest without a warrant but orally charges a felony, the state must pay the dieting fee until a warrant or summons is issued charging a misdemeanor or until the grand jury refuses or fails to indict. If the prisoner is brought to jail under a felony warrant, the state must pay the dieting fee until the grand jury fails or refuses to indict. So long as the prisoner is in a "felony charge status", the dieting fee must be paid out of the state treasury. A prisoner becomes a state prisoner for dieting fee purposes precisely at the time he is "charged with a felony. " For the purpose of applying KRS 64.150(3), a person can be charged with a felony generally in the following ways: (1) by an oral charge (See KRS 431.005(1)); (2) by warrant or summons (See RCr 2.06); (3) by indictment (See RCr 6.10).
KRS 64.150(3), in treating the matter of "charged with a felony" , uses no language indicating that the state payment of dieting fees is conditioned upon a felony charge by indictment. Thus any of the above methods of charging a felony prior to actual trial is sufficient to invoke the application of KRS 64.150(3). The court said in Department of Revenue v. Greyhound Corporation, Ky., 321 S.W.2d 60 (1959) 61, that "we conceive it to be our duty to accord the words of a statute their literal meaning unless to do so would lead to an absurd or wholly unreasonable conclusion." Here our interpretation cannot be said to be absurd or unreasonable in its practical effect. Conversely, our interpretation is reasonable and involves the only logical line of demarcation in assessing the phrase "charged with a felony. "
KRS 64.150 was amended in 1976 to be effective January 1, 1978 [(Ex. Sess.), Ch. 12, § 14]. The L.R.C. note in Bobbs-Merrill states that the section was amended in the 1976 (Ex. Sess.) by two acts, Ch. 14, § 29 and Ch. 12, § 14, which are in conflict. The later amendment by Ch. 12, § 14, prevails. We agree. Where two acts are enacted at the same session and are irreconcilable, as is the case here, the last law enacted must be regarded as the final expression of the legislative will and permitted to prevail. Campbell County Election Commission v. Weber, 240 Ky. 373, 42 S.W.2d 511 (1931) 512; and State Property & Buildings Commission v. Hays, Ky., 346 S.W.2d 3 (1961) 6.
The 1976 Amendment (Ex. Sess) provides [KRS 64.150(2)] that the unit of government whose law, statute, ordinance, or code a prisoner is charged with or convicted of violating shall be responsible for paying the jailer's fees, including dieting fees. Since a felony involves state statutes, the state would have to pay the dieting fee if the prisoner is charged with or convicted of a felony.