Request By:
Mr. Billy Roy Shepherd
Bullitt County Jailer
R.R. 1, Box 285
Shepherdsville, Ky. 40165
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You seek clarification of KRS 441.017, which deals with training of jailers and jail personnel. That statute reads:
"(1) For the purpose of raising the level of competence of jailers and jail personnel, the cabinet shall maintain a local corrections training program to provide training for jailers and jail personnel consistent with the standards promulgated pursuant to KRS 441.011 and shall keep records of jailers and jail personnel who satisfactorily complete basic and annual continuing education. A curriculum advisory committee composed of jailers, their representatives and recognized professionals in the field of jail administration shall advise the cabinet concerning the training needs of jailers and jail personnel. (2) Beginning in August, 1982 each jailer shall receive an expense allowance to help defray the costs of his and his staff's participation in the local corrections training program. The expense allowance shall be in the amount of three hundred dollars ($300) per month payable out of the state treasury, provided, however, that such payments shall be discontinued if the jailer fails to complete basic training within one (1) year of taking office. Thereafter, expense allowance payments shall be discontinued if the jailer fails to satisfactorily complete annual continuing training. Expense allowance payments shall be resumed following a discontinuance for failure to satisfactorily complete basic or annual training only upon the jailer's satisfactory completion of such training. (3) The allowance authorized in subsection (2) of this section shall be considered as operating expenses of the jailer's office and shall not be considered as part of his compensation. Jailers shall not be required to keep records verifying the expenditures from the allowance provided by the state."
Your question was stated as follows:
"My question is whether this KRS requires that training be administered by the Kentucky Department of Corrections or may the jailer obtain training from other sources, such as the National Institute of Corrections which is federally funded?"
Under KRS 441.017, the Corrections Cabinet is required to maintain a local corrections training program to provide training for jailers and jail personnel, consistent with standards promulgated pursuant to KRS 441.011. Both subsections (1) and (2) of the statute stress a "local corrections training program" . (Emphasis added).
Under the literal wording of KRS 441.017, the only training program for Kentucky jailers and staff relates to the system of local corrections training programs maintained by the Kentucky Corrections Cabinet. The expense allowance to jailers relates exclusively to local corrections training programs maintained by the Kentucky Corrections Cabinet. In addition, the training programs are to be deliberately and carefully integrated with jail standards promulgated by the Kentucky Corrections Cabinet. See, for example, 501 KAR 3:020 and 3:020E (Administration, Management of Jails) ; 3:030 and 3:030E (fiscal management in jails) ; 3:040 and 3:040E (personnel procedures in jails) . KRS 441.011 provides that regulations to be adopted by the Corrections Cabinet shall include the following areas: health and safety conditions, fire safety, jail operations and administration, "Curriculum of basic and continuing annual training for jailers and jail personnel" , custody, care and treatment of prisoners, medical care, jail equipment, renovation and construction. (Emphasis added).
Section 1 of 501 KAR 3:020 provides that each jailer shall develop and maintain an organizational manual of policy and procedure which has been adopted by the Fiscal Court and filed with the Corrections Cabinet. The operations manual must include, but is not limited to, the following aspects of the jail operation: (a) administration, (b) fiscal management, (c) personnel, (d) security and control, (e) sanitation and management, (f) medical services, (g) food services, (h) emergency and safety procedures, (i) classification, (j) inmate programs, (k) inmate services, (1) admissions and release.
As relates to the jailer local training program, 501 KAR 3:040 Section 4 reads:
Section 4. Training; Curriculum. (1) In order to qualify for the training expense allowance under KRS 441.017, the jailer shall receive a minimum of forty (40) hours annual in-service training certified by the Corrections Cabinet.
(a) Local corrections training efforts shall be certified by the Corrections Cabinet.
(b) The Curriculum Advisory Committee shall advise the Corrections Cabinet on topics for training curriculum.
(c) Jailer training shall be delivered on a regional basis by the Corrections Cabinet.
(2) The jail staff shall receive a minimum of sixteen (16) hours annual in-service training delivered by the Corrections Cabinet on a regional or local basis.
(3) The provisions of this section shall be effective as of January 1, 1983.
Thus each jailer must receive a minimum of forty (40) hours annual in-service training certified by the Corrections Cabinet. The jail staff must receive a minimum of sixteen (16) hours of annual in-service training delivered by the Corrections Cabinet on a local or regional basis.
We have been informed that the Corrections Cabinet has established an Office of Corrections Training on the Shelby Campus of the University of Louisville. Further, the training program described in KRS 441.017 is really being administered for Kentucky Jailers and personnel at the Shelby Campus training site.
CONCLUSION
It is our opinion as follows:
(1) KRS 441.017 places upon the Corrections Cabinet the responsibility for maintaining a local Corrections training program for Jailers and Jail staff. The minimal training program, and the minimal number of hours of such training, are described in 501 KAR 3:040, Section 4. Such training must be certified by the Corrections Cabinet. Thus the statute and regulations establish a minimal training program specifically designed by the Corrections Cabinet for Kentucky Jailers. See
Gateway Const. Co. v. Wallbaum, Ky., 356 S.W.2d 247 (1961), concerning the usual, ordinary and every day meaning of a statute.
(2) We see nothing prohibiting any jailer's pursuing additional instruction for jailers provided by a non-Kentucky source, which additional instruction is over and above the minimal program referred to.