Request By:
Mr. Bernard H. Sandfoss
Campbell County Sheriff
Courthouse
Newport, Kentucky 41071
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your problem concerns medical treatment of prisoners in the county and city jails in Campbell County.
Your office has taken the position that the jailers have the duty to see that prisoners get medical attention, if needed. You are correct.
The jailers of the city and county jails have custody of the jails and the prisoners. They must treat them humanely, and if they need medical treatment or attention they are responsible for their getting medical attention. See KRS 71.030, 71.040 and 84.150. If the prisoner has to be taken to a doctor's office or to the hospital, the injured or ill prisoner must remain in the constructive custody of the jailer or a deputy jailer. The county court and city legislative body are the proper authorities to authorize the transporting of the sick prisoners to a hospital, doctor's office, or clinic where they will receive adequate medical attention. See KRS 71.050, 441.010, and 84.150.
Although the county and city jailers can call on your office for assistance in providing security in connection with ill prisoners taken out of jail to a hospital or doctor's office, the prisoners must be accompanied by a deputy jailer who is primarily responsible for them, unless ordered otherwise by a court having jurisdiction, as you said.
The city jailer's responsibility, as we have outlined it above, extends to all city jail prisoners intrusted to his care.