Request By:
Mr. James B. Allen, Jr.
Clark County Judge Executive
Courthouse
P.O. Box 5
Winchester, Kentucky 40391
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
In April of 1982, the Clark County Jailer ordered four (4) dozen jumpsuits for the jail prisoners. Upon receipt of the suits the jailer did not have enough money from his fees to pay the bill of $484.68. After July 1, 1982, when the new jail legislation took effect, the bill was sent to the Clark County Treasurer to be paid out of the 1982-83 budget. The fiscal court did not authorize payment and the treasurer did not sign any check for that bill.
You feel that since the jail was under the fee system in 1982, at the time the prisoner uniforms were ordered, the bill should be paid by the jailer.
It is first our opinion that the jailer may require his prisoners to wear some reasonable type of prisoner uniform calculated to subserve the necessary disciplinary system of the jail. Uniforms, as contrasted with private clothes, would promote jail order and discipline and would tend to reduce contraband (drugs and weapons) from entering the jail. See KRS 71.020, 71.040; City of Bowling Green v. Rogers, 142 Ky. 558, 134 S.W.2d 921 (1911); and Sudderth v. White, Ky.App., 621 S.W.2d 33 (1981). Also see Price v. Johnston, 334 U.S. 266, 68 S. Ct. 1049, 92 L. Ed. 1356 (1948).
It is further our opinion that such appropriate prisoner uniforms would constitute a legitimate expense of the jail operation. See KRS 441.008. However, the payment could only be made from a properly budgeted fund in the jail budget.
Even if these uniforms could only have been paid under the old fee system, the fiscal court could have authorized payment out of the county treasury, where the jailer's fees were insufficient. See Funk v. Milliken, Ky., 317 S.W.2d 499 (1958). Under the fee system any excess fees belonged to the county. Thus the county had a legal responsibility to augment the fees of the jailer where necessary for jail expenses. Since the jailer did not get prior approval from the fiscal court, it was not mandated to pay for the uniforms out of the county treasury under the old fee system.
However, under the new system of the jail budget, the expenditure of jail budget funds is by the county treasurer at the direction of the jailer. Thus if there is a properly budgeted item in the present jail budget and sufficient funds in that budget category available, the jailer could direct payment for the present uniforms now in use in the jail.