by Kyle Ellison

This is a link to a TV news report about the restart of Louisville Metro Department of Corrections’ information Dashboard.  At first the story was about why the Dashboard had not worked for the past 6 months and I was interviewed for that.  An hour later the reporter called back to say that the revised Dashboard had just started working.  Another interview ensued, and Amber Duke of ACLU was also interviewed. The revised Dashboard has much more information than the older version. I hope a Data Analyst can be hired to summarize jail data. This would enable Metro Council to make meaningful policy decisions and could be used for LMDC to put out an Annual Report “Fact Sheet” longer than one page. 

https://louisvilleky.gov/government/corrections/fact-sheet

I am pleased to get public attention for the jail and the reporter did well given the time limitations.  As expected, much of what I said was edited. I hope data about human needs of people at the jail can be included in future daily jail reports and that monthly reports can be added. 

Citizens have more empathy for human needs than for people reduced to hard numbers. A partial list of human needs in jail is shown below. Meeting these needs in the community would impact the plans now being made for a new jail. Commissioning a study of those needs and resources should be a priority.

Here is the WHAS link:

https://www.whas11.com/article/news/investigations/focus/lmdc-updates-inmate-dashboard-after-being-down-for-six-months-louisville-metro-corrections/417-ec1d76cc-65ca-4e22-9834-9aec8bb9bffb

Here is a link to the new LMDC Dashboard:

https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiOWY2NjczNjctYjgzNC00Zjg2LTk1MWItNzAzOTBhMGM4ZTRiIiwidCI6IjRmOTg2MTliLTIwMmQtNDEzZi04Y2NmLTM2MWQ1NzIxM2JjZCIsImMiOjF9

Human needs that should be reported for people in the jail. These reports might include the number of:

• people requiring detox care, including alcohol
• people requiring mental health care / availability of mental health unit beds
• people requiring medical care / trips to the Emergency Room
• homeless
• suicide attempts
• people on Home Incarceration Program
• people returned to jail from Home Incarceration Program for lack of a suitable home (this is about 1,100 per year)
• video family visits
• in person family visits
• people seeking protective custody
• people in a segregation cell / disciplinary reports
• overdoses  requiring use of Narcan
• people referred to mental health care upon release
• assaults on staff and on prisoners
• people in jail within the past year / 2 years
• people in jail who might have gone on Work Release and lived at the demolished Community Corrections Center
• cost per day of each prisoner
• people waiting for restoration of mental health before standing trial
• people in custody of KDOC for chronic medical needs
• Prison Rape Elimination Act reports
• incidents requiring use of force by staff 
• admissions in Security Threat Groups (gangs)
• overtime shifts
• Correctional Officers in training
• felony convicted people backed up waiting for a state prison bed
• people discharged to Kentucky Department of Corrections – state prison
• people discharged to county jails / convicted of Class D (five years or less) felonies, Including a list of which county jails receive them
• discharges to community treatment services and a list of those services

Also, information regarding:

• results of fire safety inspections
• results of Health Department / food service inspections
• results of jail inspections by KDOC Jail Inspectors
• jail Accreditation status
• amount collected from prisoners in fees and charges.
• availability of a jail library
• availability of GED programs
• staff Vacancies, both Correctional Officers and Civilian personnel 
• length of service for CO’s
• starting salaries for CO’s
• discharges