Request By:
Mr. David H. Bland
Kentucky Jailers Association
McCowans Ferry Road
Versailles, Kentucky 40383
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
In your letter you refer to OAG 82-421 (in which we concluded that it is the jailer's responsibility for "transporting such prisoners to and from the courts and remaining with such prisoners while they are before the courts." You say that conclusion seems to be at vartance with OAG 80-23, issued on January 14, 1980. You indicate the jailers in Kentucky have been "operating under the authority and direction of OAG 80-23 with all parties being satisfied."
You request that we review OAG 80-23 in connection with the specific function of transporting prisoners to and from the courts.
Pursuant to KRS 71.020 and 71.040, the county jailer has the custody of the prisoners committed to his custody, subject to the orders of the court in connection with the disposition of their cases.
The law imposes the duty on a jailer to exercise reasonable and ordinary care and diligence to prevent unlawful injury to a prisoner placed in his custody. Stated another way, the jailer owes a duty to the prisoner to keep him safe and to protect him from unnecessary harm.
Hall v. Midwest Bottled Gas Distributors, Inc., Ky., 532 S.W.2d 449 (1976).
The jailer's duty to protect his prisoners extends to the jailer at all times until a particular prisoner's jail stay is terminated by court order, or otherwise lawfully discharged. KRS 71.040.
The sheriff, or a deputy, on the other hand, is required by KRS 70.140 to attend and keep order in the local courts. The statute is silent as to any prisoner duties. KRS 24A.140 outlines the sheriff's responsibilities for attending district courts and keeping order therein. Here again the statute says nothing about the sheriff's handling of prisoners. KRS 23A.090 requires the sheriff to furnish security for circuit court in his county. And again, the statute says nothing about any responsibility for bringing jail prisoners before the court.
KRS 441.500(1) and (2) reads:
(1) If an accused is confined in a detention facility, he shall be transported as necessary in accordance with the following provisions, unless otherwise ordered by the court:
(a) If he is lodged in a city jail in the county where the trial is to be held, the city police shall carry out this duty.
(b) If he is lodged in an urban-county facility in the county where the trial is to be held, the jailer shall carry out this duty.
(c) In all other cases the sheriff of the county where the prisoner is incarcerated shall carry out this duty.
(2) If an accused is sentenced to confinement, the sheriff shall deliver him to the proper detention facility, with these exceptions:
(a) If he is sentenced to a facility which is operated by a city within the county where the trial is held, the city police shall deliver him to the proper facility.
(b) In the case of a sentence to an urban-county detention facility, the jailer shall carry out this duty.
Although KRS 441.500 is rather generally worded (it uses the phrase "transported as necessary"), the primary duty of transporting prisoners to the courts rests apon the sheriff, unless the circumstances fall within one of the exceptions established by subsections (1)(a)(b) and (2)(a) and (b).
However, it should be noted that under KRS 71.050, the jailer, as an officer of the court subject to the court's command, shall perform such duty when ordered to do so by the court. See
Shannon v. Ray, 280 Ky. 31, 132 S.W.2d 545 (1939) 547.
OAG 80-23, as indicated above, is affirmed. OAG 82-421 is accordingly modified.