Request By:
Mr. Tete Turner, Jr.
Fiscal Director/
County Coordinator
Campbell County Fiscal Court
24 S. Fourth Street
P.O. Box 340
Newport, Kentucky 41072
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
Your questions were as follows:
"Due to overcrowding in our County Jail, I respectfully request your advice and opinion on the following concerns:
a) Is it mandatory that an order be written authorizing the transportation and relocation of inmates from our facility to another County Jail?
b) If so, is it the responsibility of the District Court or the County Judge Executive to prepare and authorize this order?"
Since you have a county jail, the sheriff is required to transport the prisoners, charged in your county, as such transportation becomes necessary. Thus this responsibility rests with the sheriff of your county, even where the prisoners must be taken to another county jail for lack of space in your jail. Under KRS 441.025, the fiscal court of your county would be required to contract with another county, or with other counties, for the incarceration and care of its prisoners. A resolution or order of your fiscal court would be necessary to authorize such a contract or contracts to handle prisoners in excess of your jail space.
If some person other than the sheriff of your county is to legally transport such excess prisoners to another county jail, it would require an order of the local court which has criminal jurisdiction of the prisoner. See KRS 441.510(1)(c).
Under the above cited statutes we have delineated the responsibility of the fiscal court in terms of contracting with another county for jail space for its prisoners, and the responsibility of the court of criminal jurisdiction in terms of the officer who is to carry out the transportation function. It is an established rule of statute construction that the policy and purpose of the statute will be considered in determining the meaning of the words used.