Request By:
Mr. Harold N. Taylor
Daviess County Jailer
110 St. Elizabeth Street
Owensboro, Kentucky 42301
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
In the 1982 session, the General Assembly enacted a new section, KRS 441.007, providing a state contribution for local jails.
KRS 441.007(1) reads:
"For the care and maintenance of prisoners charged with or convicted of violations of state law, each county shall receive a contribution from the state treasury for the incarceration of state prisoners in an amount equal to the total amount paid to the jailer in fiscal year 1980-81 for fees pursuant to KRS 64.150 plus the product of the number of permanent beds in the jail, as determined by the bureau of corrections, times two hundred and seventy dollars ($270)."
Your question reads as follows:
Since the jailer received a $5.00 fee pursuant to KRS 64.150 for taking bonds and the above mentioned statue was repealed, shouldn't this $5.00 fee be part of the state's contribution to the county treasurer in lieu of the new statute KRS 441.007 subsection (1) and subsection (4) if applicable?"
In connection with a jailer's taking a bond, KRS 64.150(3) provided that "for all other services performed by the jailer, he shall receive the same fees paid to sheriffs for like services." Under KRS 64.090, the fee for taking a bond is five dollars ($5.00). KRS 64.150 was repealed by Section 50 of H.B. 440, effective July 1, 1982. See RCr 4.24, authorizing the chief judge of the circuit court to designate the jailer, under certain circumstances, to take bond. Also see KRS 30A.060(3) (taking bond).
The answer to your question is that KRS 441.007(1) establishes a uniform formula for the payment of the state's contribution to each county for its incarceration of prisoners. That formula is simply "an amount equal to the total amount paid to the jailer in fiscal year 1980-81 for fees pursuant to KRS 64.150" plus the product of the number of permanent beds in the jail, as determined by the Bureau of Corrections, times two hundred and seventy dollars ($270). (Emphasis added).
The point is that any five dollars ($5) fee earned by the jailer in making bond and collected by him in fiscal year 1980-81 is taken into account as a part of the above formula calculation. Even where KRS 441.007(4) applies (1980-81 not a representative year for fees) and a prior fiscal year is authorized by the Secretary of Finance as a basis for the formula calculation, the principle remains the same.