Request By:
Mr. Arvil Francies
Todd County Jailer
P.O. Box 808
Elkton, Kentucky 42220
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You request our opinion on questions relating to county jail operations.
Question No. 1:
"Is the fiscal court or the county jailer responsible for providing a vehicle to transport inmates; when the jail is closed? (Inmates are being transported to neighboring county under agreement)."
When the local county jail is open and operational, the sheriff has the responsibility of transporting the county prisoners. KRS 441.500(1)(c). However, the responsibility for providing a vehicle for such transportation of prisoners is a joint one of the fiscal court and jailer. See KRS 441.006 and 441.008. The jailer has to work closely with the fiscal court in the formulation of the jail budget part of the county budget. The vehicle for transporting prisoners may come out of the jail budget or some other appropriate part of the county budget. The title to the vehicle must remain in the county.
Where the local jail is closed and the prisoners are transported to a jail in another county, the local jailer is immediately responsible for transporting such prisoners to and from such detention facility. KRS 441.500(3). However, the providing of the necessary vehicle for such transportation is the same as if the local jail were operational, as stated above.
Question No. 2:
"If the jailer furnishes transportation, can he set the rate of charges per mile? "
There is no rate per mile. The actual cost of operating the vehicle of prisoner transportation should be budgeted for in the jail budget of the county budget. See KRS 441.008. The vehicle used is a county vehicle, not the jailer's vehicle.
Question No. 3:
"The KRS on the number of deputies/ guards authorized when the jailer is the transportation officer."
Under KRS 71.060, any jailer may appoint not more than two (2) deputies and a matron and, with approval of the fiscal court, may appoint additional deputies at any time during the jailer's term of office. However, such appointments must be reasonable in terms of the actual number of deputies needed and the public interest subserved.
Com. v. Sizemore, 269 Ky. 722, 108 S.W.2d 733 (1937). Even when the local jail is closed, the jailer may retain and ask for the number of deputies necessary for assisting him in his role as transportation officer. See also 63 Am.Jur.2d, Public Officers and Employees, §§ 275 and 276, concerning a public officer's duties as trustee for the public.
Question No. 4:
"The mandatory retirement age for jail deputies. "
A deputy jailer may be removed at any time by the jailer, provided that such removal is not done arbitrarily. See § 2, Kentucky Constitution; KRS 71.060(1); and
Pritchett v. Marshall, Ky., 375 S.W.2d 253 (1963); and KRS 344.040(1), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, or age between forty and seventy.
A deputy jailer is required to be at least twenty-one (21) years of age or over, pursuant to KRS 61.300(1). However, we find no statute establishing a maximum age for such deputies.