Request By:
Mr. Edward J. Huck
Campbell County Jailer
345 Columbia Street
Newport, Kentucky 41071
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You seek our opinion on the following questions relating to the county jail.
Question No. 1:
"I would like your opinion on mental people when they come to jail. Do we have to accept them?"
The jailer must keep and receive in the county jail all persons who are lawfully committed thereto, until they are lawfully discharged. KRS 71.040. Where a person is directed by a court of jurisdiction to be confined in the county jail awaiting trial on a criminal charge or where the person is sentenced to confinement in the county jail by a court of jurisdiction, even though he may be mentally ill, you will have to receive him and keep him until the court by written order releases him. Further, any peace officer who has reasonable grounds to believe that an individual is mentally ill and presents an immediate danger or an immediate threat of danger to self or others if not immediately restrained shall detain that person without a warrant. The peace officer may put such person in jail or a hospital, if available, pending a court hearing. KRS 202A.040. Thus a court of jurisdiction may order a mentally ill person to jail pending a hearing or pending transportation of the person to a hospital for examination and treatment. See KRS Chapter 202A.
Question No. 2:
"Who should transport them to the hospital, even though he or she has not been booked into the jail officially on the jail booking sheet?"
Where the court orders the sheriff to transport a mental patient to a mental health facility for examination and treatment pursuant to KRS 202A.100, the sheriff must assume that responsibility, of course. Where a peace officer under KRS 202A.040 arrests a mentally ill person, he must take the person to a physician or hospital, and if the facilities are available, the person can remain in that hospital pending a court hearing. The peace officer can call on the sheriff for help in such transportation. KRS 441.500. Then the sheriff is responsible for transporting the mentally ill person from the hospital (where he is being held) to the local court. KRS 441.500(1)(c).
Question No. 3:
"Do we have to accept any prisoner that is injured, or appears to be badly injured or that is unconscious?"
A jailer cannot refuse to receive persons lawfully committed to him just because they are sick or injured. See KRS 71.040. You cannot collaterally or otherwise question the courts in this regard. You must accept the orders of the court. City of Lexington v. Gentry, 116 Ky. 528, 76 S.W. 404 (1903) 405.
Question No. 4:
"After a person is declared mentally incompetent, how long is it that they are able to stand trial, approximately?"
The trial of a person who claims to be mentally ill is up to the court of jurisdiction. Here again where such person is in the county jail awaiting trial, you will have to depend upon orders of the court in connection with further confinement or release. KRS 71.040.