Request By:
Mr. Gary D. Wainscott
Scott County Sheriff
Georgetown, Kentucky 40324
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
In Georgetown, Scott County, the county operates a 28 bed facility to house the prisoners of the city, county and state law enforcement agencies. The county has signed a contract with Bourbon County to take all excess as well as all juveniles since you do not have security facilities for juveniles. As of late, a volume of prisoners and the refusal on the part of the jailer to transport any prisoners has put a great hardship on your small agency which must, also, maintain law enforcement duties as well as court duties. You need the following questions answered as soon possible to clarify the duties and responsibilities of the sheriff and jailer.
First, you ask who is responsible for the transporting of the juveniles and waiting on the court with them?
The answer is that the jailer of your county has that responsibility, in the absence of other arrangements in the contract with Bourbon County. KRS 441.500 (Ch. 385, § 47, 1982 Acts). See also KRS 71.050 (jailer is an officer of the cir cuit and district courts for his county).
Question No. 2 reads:
Can the jailer refuse to accept a prisoner into his facility because the jail is full?
Is it the arresting agency's (officer) or jailer's responsibility to maintain control of the prisoner until the prisoner can be taken to the contract facility?
The local fiscal court, not the local jailer, determines the prisoner capacity of the county jail. This authority springs from the fact that the fiscal court is responsible for providing a jail or contracting for detention facilities. KRS 441.006. The arresting officer may turn over the prisoner to the local jailer, who then must transport the prisoner to the contract facility (where there is no space available in your local jail, as determined by fiscal court policies).
Question 3 deals with transporting a prisoner to another county due to overcrowding. We have just answered that. The responsibility rests with the local jailer. We cannot get into the responsibilities of the courts.
Question No. 4:
In reference to KRS 441.500, 71.020 OAG 1/30/80 to our office and to House Bill 440, I am unclear as to when it becomes the sheriff's responsibility to transport prisoners to the doctors, dentists, etc.
Since the local jailer has the custody of such prisoners, he must transport such prisoners to the doctors, dentists, etc., as necessary. KRS 71.020. Where the accused is sentenced to confinement in a county jail (not urban county government) , the local sheriff must deliver him to the jail. KRS 441.500(2).
Question No. 5:
Whose responsibility is it to deliver prisoners to the district and circuit courts for arraignments, hearings or trial?
Where the prisoners are detained in the county jail (not urban county government) , under KRS 441.500(1)(c), the sheriff of the county where the prisoner is incarcerated must carry out that duty.
Question No. 6:
In reference to prisoner transport, is the sheriff under the same obligation to comply with a verbal order as the assuredly is to a written order from the district and circuit judge?
We suggest you take that up with the Administrative Office of the Courts.
Since Question 7 relates to AOC, we suggest you take that up with them.