Prison change prompts questions

A state decision to move male prisoners and replace them with women inmates at a local prison left Lyon County leaders with myriad questions.
Inmate work details from Western Kentucky Correctional Complex perform numerous maintenance duties for the county, the cities of Eddyville and Kuttawa and other entities. Though Corrections Commissioner LaDonna Thompson said the community work programs will continue with the female inmates, questions remain.
Inmate participation in work details is strictly voluntary. And some summer work is hot and strenuous prompting questions regarding whether enough women will volunteer. Also there are questions about liability, what extra training might be required to supervise women inmates, and whether a female supervisor will be required.
Gov. Steve Beshear announced the change at a noon press conference on Friday with very short notice to local officials.
Judge Jimmy Campbell said he learned about the move from state Rep. Will Coursey about 11 a.m., just an hour before the news conference in Frankfort. A few minutes later, he was notified by Justice and Public Safety Secretary J. Michael Brown.
“I don’t know why they did it, or why it became so immediate, but ... it kind of caught me off guard,” Campbell said. “I’m just a small piece of this puzzle that Warden (Bryan) Henson and the people in corrections are going to have to put together. ... Those folks have got a monumental job to try to do.
“They’ve got lots and lots of work to do and a short time to do it in,” he said. “So we want to be as cooperative with them as we can and wish them well. But by the same token, with these little pieces of the puzzle that are out there, we want to make sure that Lyon County is represented and is protected.”
Prior calculations indicate replacing the labor performed by work-release inmates would cost the county about $32,000 each at a rate of $9 per hour for a full-time worker. The county has three inmate workers for whom it provides meals and transportation.
Eddyville Mayor Judi Stone said she anticipates little change. The city has five inmate workers — two in the sanitation department and three in the street department.
“The garbage is the most physical thing they do, and it’s not too heavy lifting,” she said. “We live in a day of equal opportunity. At this point, it will be business as usual. We will have to make adjustments, but if I hired street employees, I’d have to consider women.
“I’ve always been open-minded to all changes,” Stone said. “Women are put in any position a man is — it’s equal opportunity. It’s the way America is now, we can’t be discriminatory. We’ll deal with it; whatever we have to do to make it work, we’ll do it.”
Kuttawa Mayor Lee McCollum was more circumspect.
”I’ve given it a little thought,” he said. “I guess if they offer (a work detail), we’ll try to work them. But that is strictly voluntary, and I don’t know if we’ll have any takers. I’d be willing to give them a try.”
Kuttawa has three inmate workers in summer and two during the winter. They perform mowing and weed and grass trimming chores. Now the inmates are busy clearing debris along Vista Ridge Walking Trail left by last January’s ice storm. McCollum noted that work involves using chainsaws and dragging heavy debris from about 20 feet on either side of the trail.
“Will these ladies want to do that?” he queried. “... I’m not saying they can’t do it, but will they want to?”
Also McCollum said the summer work requires mowing on rough terrain and “they do a lot of weed eating, and it’s pretty hot out there.”
If the women inmates don’t volunteer for the chores the city requires, McCollum said possibly youths could be hired in the summer. But mowing season begins long before school is out.
The plan Beshear outlined will move 432 women inmates housed at Otter Creek Correctional Complex in Wheelwright to Western Kentucky Correctional Complex between Eddyville and Fredonia. The 680 men now at Western will be transferred to other Kentucky prisons including the privately operated Otter Creek.
The move will require some modifications especially in plumbing and restrooms to accommodate women at Western and will begin by July 1, the governor said.
Apparently the move, which the governor called bold, stems from allegations of sexual misconduct by Otter Creek employees with women inmates.
Six employees have been charged with sex crimes involving Otter Creek inmates and state police reportedly will present another case to a Floyd County grand jury next month.
“Moving these female prisoners out of Otter Creek and into facilities operated by the state is the right thing to do,” Beshear said at the news conference. “... As a result of the troubling allegations and incidents that Otter Creek experienced in managing a female population, we instituted more stringent operating and reporting requirements, and limited the extension of their (the contractor’s) contract to the end of the current fiscal year so we could review their progress and assess our options.”
Otter Creek is managed by the Nashville, Tenn. based Corrections Corporation of America.
Thompson said the move will be cost neutral for taxpayers the first year, but subsequently, it is expected to save $2.2 million a year because the state will pay Corrections Corporation less per day to house men than women.
No staff changes are anticipated at Western but employees will receive training in managing women inmates, Thompson said at the news conference. “The training plan will include experienced staff from Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women,” she said.