Request By:
Mr. Wayne T. Rutherford
Pike County Judge/Executive
Pike County Courthouse
Main Street
Pikeville, Kentucky 41501
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Thomas R. Emerson, Assistant Attorney General
This is in reply to your letter stating that the Pike County Fiscal Court operates a detoxification center with a Federal grant and county money. Your question concerning that operation is as follows:
"The question I would like to have resolved is, can the County expect to be reimbursed for any expenses it incurs in operating the Detox Center since the problem on January 1 becomes a State problem and not a county problem. I ask this due to the fact that the KRS provides that the jailer shall diet those people kept in the Detox Center."
You have not furnished any statutory references but we assume the county operates the detoxification program pursuant to KRS 222.210 to 222.300, the "Alcoholism Treatment and Rehabilitation Law." That law was enacted in 1972, to become effective July 1, 1973, and has not been amended since then. KRS 222.230(7) provides in part that no department, agency or institution of the Commonwealth or any political subdivision thereof shall operate a facility without approval from the Department for Human Resources pursuant to this section.
KRS 222.220 provides in part that the Department for Human Resources may make and enter into contracts and agreements with government departments, public and private agencies and facilities, physicians and other persons rendering services to alcoholics. As far as we can determine, no such contract or agreement has been entered into between the state and your county concerning the county's detoxification program. Apparently the program you are operating is strictly a county operation although state approval is required for such a program. We are not aware of any statutory provision requiring the state to take over or subsidize county detoxification programs on January 1, 1978, or at any other time. Furthermore, such programs are not part of or associated with the state judicial system.
Since you have not given us much information to work with concerning your specific detoxification program, we would suggest that you talk with the state officials most closely associated with such programs for further information, suggestions and guidance. We recommend that you contact Mr. Mike Townsend, Supervisor of the Alcohol Section, Bureau of Health Services, Department for Human Resources, 275 East Main Street, Frankfort, Kentucky 40601 (Telephone: 502 - 564-7450).
In connection with the jailer's keeping and dieting of prisoners and his fees for those services, see KRS 64.150 as amended, effective January 1, 1978, providing that county jailers shall be paid out of the county treasury, except as provided in subsection (2) of KRS 64.150. Subsection (2) provides that the unit of government whose law, statute or ordinance a prisoner is charged with or convicted of violating shall be responsible for paying to the county jailer the fees provided in KRS 64.150(1). See OAG 77-705, copy enclosed. The fee permitted the jailer, per day, for keeping and dieting prisoners in jail when confined for an offense or contempt is $5.75.