Request By:
Hon. Paul F. Purvis
County Judge/Executive
Boyd County Fiscal Court
P.O. Box 423
Catlettsburg, Kentucky 41129
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You point out in your letter to this office that Boyd County, as you say is true in a majority of Kentucky counties, is having "Jail" problems.
The Boyd County jailer does not live at or near the jail. His wife is the cook for the jail. One problem concerns food purchases. You apparently feel that his jail food purchases (the jailer's wife is apparently choosing the food and determining the diet) , may be too costly. You thought he was being too good to his prisoners. A specific question is as follows:
"Is the jailer permitted to feed his family out of the Jail Budget? If so: Do they have to eat at the Jail or is he allowed to charge this to the Jail Food Account and take it home to prepare it?"
We understand your concern, since the food is being purchased with money coming out of the county treasury. However, the jailer is the one officer responsible for feeding the jail prisoners. See KRS 71.020 and 71.040. KRS 71.040 provides that the jailer shall "furnish them with proper food and lodging." (Emphasis added.) From this we learn that the diet must consist of what is called proper foods, from a nutritional standpoint, and an adequate amount thereof for ordinary health needs. He has no authority to put them on a starvation diet. On the other hand, he is not required to furnish meals amounting to a gourmet's delight.
Thus the jailer must carefully calculate what a proper feeding is, within the guidelines mentioned above. The fiscal court and county judge/executive have no authority to approve the jailer's actions in this regard. Where substantial evidence exists that the jailer is wasting county money in providing a gourmet kind of prisoner diet, the fiscal court could seek resolution by way of mandamus or injunctive relief in circuit court.
In any event, the county treasurer, under KRS 441.008(2), is required to disburse jail operating funds (though a part of the county budget) at the discretion of the jailer. It would appear that the fiscal court or county judge/executive has no administrative control over such jail expenditures. However, the fiscal court could, in a proper case, seek mandamus or injunctive relief against him where it is alleged that the jailer is substantially exceeding his statutory authority. See
Young v. Jefferson County Election Commission, 304 Ky. 81, 200 S.W.2d 111 (1947).
As relates to the specific question of feeding his family, since the jailer's use of the jail as a residence would be designed to render his office more effective, it is implied in KRS 71.020 and 71.040 that the jailer and family living in the jail could eat food brought in for jail prisoner consumption. However, since the jailer and family do not live in the jail, there is no supportable reason for the jailer and family being fed with jail food. The answer here is "no." Other parts of that question are academic.