Full transcript of September 21, 2023 Third Thursday Lunch Lecture with additional resources
Our jails are billboards
we drive by without reading
Questions might escape
July 6, 2023 unpublished opinion about LMDC:
We are managing our Metro jail on a “seat of our pants” crisis management cycle. Decades of neglect—a crisis (14 deaths)—media reports and public demands for accountability—a 456-page Beyer Investigation Report—Metro Council hearings—more media reports. At the end of all that, Metro Council and the Mayor are expected to solve this complex problem, stop the deaths, and prevent costly litigation and federal intervention at our jail.
FOR Radio podcast by Ruth Newman.
Councilmember Andrew Owen, Judi Jennings and Kyle Ellison
There is one program and half of another
https://www.forwardradio.org/podcast/episode/911e0fe0/election-connection-or-issues-surrounding-jail-deaths-and-new-jail-proposal-or-5-9-23
“A Jail Is More Than A Building” May 1, 2023
This gives the statewide context for LMDC. It has many links to KDOC and LMDC sites. This is about 40 pages but much of it is photos. The Appendix is 7 pages long. (In contrast, the Beyer Investigation into deaths at LMDC is 456 pages and cost $30,000)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gvPnAvkKeVhTljUB8z-fwDoE5aHahEXf/view
Investigation Into Deaths at Louisville Metro Corrections Department by David Beyer. April 10, 2023
https://louisvilleky.gov/metro-council-district-14/document/lmdc-report-2023
What we have forgotten is the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections (LMDC) Annual Report or “Fact Sheet.”
https://louisvilleky.gov/government/corrections/fact-sheet
These one-page reports go back only ten years and reports for 2014 and 2022 are missing. The public is forced to use a one-page report to hold a $72 million per year jail accountable. Clearly, LMDC has not built the infrastructure of reporting that will facilitate accountability. Instead, we wait for a crisis, commission an investigation, and debate short term solutions for long term problems.
Recent news reporting and investigations compare our inadequate jail buildings to newer “direct supervision” jails in Oldham and Fayette Counties in Kentucky and to Washoe County Jail in Reno, Nevada. It is worth noting that the jail in Reno was built in response to federal intervention. Photo comparisons show that LMDC’s jail is a makeshift, haphazard, run down facility that makes everyone’s job more difficult. This is the result of perpetual short-term planning and lack of accountability and oversight.
We can easily compare photos of jail buildings, but it’s more difficult to compare jail staffing.
Staffing shortages at LMDC are a major theme in the Beyer Investigation Report. After a recent pay raise from $17.50 an hour, jail staff start at $22 per hour or $45,000 per year. This is not enough to recruit high quality personnel. LMDC Correctional Officers have been working 16-hour shifts and have been paid $4 million for overtime. Fayette County Jail has been 36% to 43% short staffed recently and considered bringing in the National Guard. Correctional Officer’s pay there has been raised to $50,000.
Buried on page 334 of the 456-page Beyer investigation, is the $75,000 starting salary for jail staff in Washoe County. This is as much or more than state and local police officer’s salaries there. In Washoe County, police officers are transferring into the jail to work. This can be a welcome break from the burnout aspects of policing jobs. A guaranteed supply of applicants means incompetent staff can be weeded out.
LMDC Director Collins has stated that we cannot wait for a new jail to be built, that we must work with what we have now. Right now, we have an empty jail building, the Community Corrections Center (CCC). This is a 440-bed facility that closed down during COVID due to lack of staff. The Beyer report cites a consensus of opinion among jail employees that CCC should be reopened. This would require more staff but low salaries make LMDC recruiting very difficult.
About 20% of prisoners at LMDC have mental health issues. Beyer reports an anecdote about a mentally ill person who came into the jail at least once a month for 16 years. Thousands more prisoners have drug detox issues. Using the CCC facility for these needs was encouraged in Beyer’s report. We need staff to do this, but they are not on the way. LMDC staffing problems could get even worse.
Since COVID, Kentucky Department of Corrections (KDOC) has had staffing shortages as high as 70% at several large prisons. Kentucky State Penitentiary and Green River Correctional Complex are currently operating at one-half design capacity, and Kentucky State Reformatory is scheduled to be closed. KDOC recently raised starting pay for a Correctional Officer to $50,000. The state juvenile facility scheduled to reopen in Louisville will pay the same. With LMDC salaries starting at $45,000, we should expect transfers and increased competition for new staff.
Our jail building is a problem. Staffing is a problem. Lack of community resources for treatment and recidivism rates as high as 70% are problems that go well beyond our jail. A big new jail cannot solve all these problems. We need to build an infrastructure of accountability, make the resulting reports available to the public and stop depending on the media to file open records requests. Establish an independent oversight authority because the jail will not police itself. We need competitive salaries to secure adequate staff. We need to invest in community based (not jail based) mental health and medical care. We need to reopen the Community Corrections Center. We need to keep people out of jail in the first place by investing in diversion, treatment, and bail programs. Kicking the can down the road from crisis to crisis is not working.
End of opinion
Oct 6 and 9th CJ Forum article site
“Big new jail is no answer: Kentucky needs Sunshine.” By Kyle Ellison, Guest Column. Courier-Journal October 6 and 9th 2022. In “The Forum” section:
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/opinion/2022/10/06/louisville-a-big-new-jail-will-not-prevent-pre-trial-deaths-opinion/69541220007/
Changing Faces-Common Walls. History of Kentucky Corrections 1800 to 1988.
This 44-page chronology was “erased” from KDOC website about 2009 but is on this federal site:
https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/113548NCJRS.pdf
Fellowship of Reconciliation | Louisville Chapter 