Kentucky Department of Corrections
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The Kentucky Department of Corrections is a state agency of the Kentucky Justice & Public Safety Cabinet that operates state-owned adult correctional facilities and provides oversight for and sets standards for county jails. They also provide training, community based services, and oversees the state's Probation & Parole Division. The agency is headquartered in the Health Services Building in Frankfort.


Facilities


State-owned or operated

Following is a list of Kentucky state prisons:


Private prisons

In June 2013, Kentucky temporarily ended its decades-long relationship with Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) (now
CoreCivic CoreCivic, formerly the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), is a company that owns and manages private prisons and detention centers and operates others on a concession basis. Co-founded in 1983 in Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the ...
), closing Marion Adjustment Center in
St. Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...
, the last private prison at the time that housed Kentucky inmates. This decision was widely applauded across the state, as the tax dollar savings totaled in the millions. Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelright was closed in 2012 amid continued allegations of
medical neglect In the context of caregiving, neglect is a form of abuse where the perpetrator, who is responsible for caring for someone who is unable to care for themselves, fails to do so. It can be a result of carelessness, indifference, or unwillingness an ...
, shoddy security, and sexual abuse of inmates from staff. It is still owned by CoreCivic. On October 18, 2019, Kentucky Governor
Matt Bevin Matthew Griswold Bevin (; born January 9, 1967) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 62nd governor of Kentucky, from 2015 to 2019. He was the third Republican elected Kentucky governor since World War II, after Ernie Fletc ...
announced that the Commonwealth of Kentucky would enter into a ten-year agreement with CoreCivic to lease and reopen the facility. The prison, which was renamed the Southeast State Correctional Complex, will be operated and staffed by the Kentucky Department of Corrections and will be managed under the same rules and procedures as state-owned prisons. The prison reopened under state management in September 2020. Lee Adjustment Center in Beattyville, also operated by CoreCivic, housed out-of-state inmates from Vermont until 2010. In November 2017, due to facility overcrowding, the Kentucky Department of Corrections signed a contract allowing CoreCivic to reactivate the vacant prison to house up to 800 male inmates. These inmates would be transferred from the Kentucky State Reformatory. The facility reopened and began accepting inmates in March 2018.


Death row

The
Kentucky State Penitentiary The Kentucky State Penitentiary (KSP), also known as the "Castle on the Cumberland," is a maximum security and supermax prison with capacity for 856 prisoners located in Eddyville, Kentucky on Lake Barkley on the Cumberland River, about from ...
(KSP) houses the male death row. The
Kentucky Correctional Institute for Women Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women (KCIW) is a prison located in unincorporated area, unincorporated Shelby County, Kentucky, near Pewee Valley, Kentucky, operated by the Kentucky Department of Corrections. Male and female inmates prior ...
houses the female death row. Executions occur at KSP.


History

Between 1967 and 2011, 67% of Kentucky's executions were abolished. For this reason, in 2011 the American Bar Association (ABA) recommended suspending capital punishment in the state. In 2015, Kentucky Senator Robin Webb introduced a death penalty reform bill. The text of the bill called for changes in training for law enforcement and court officials. The bill also focused on the collection and retention of DNA evidence. On March 25, 2022, the Kentucky Senate approved a bill banning the death penalty for people with serious mental illnesses.


Staffing

Since the beginning of the 2015 fiscal year, the department has seen a staffing shortage to low salaries, constant overtime (currently nearing $10 million), and the lure of higher paying jobs in the private sector. In response to this staffing crisis and continued pressure from correctional employees, the Kentucky Legislature held a special session and approved an immediate 13.1% salary increase for current security staff, moved non-security staff to 40 hour work weeks, and increased the starting salary for Correctional Officers from $23,346 to $30,000 annually. Shortly after taking office, former governor
Matt Bevin Matthew Griswold Bevin (; born January 9, 1967) is an American businessman and politician who served as the 62nd governor of Kentucky, from 2015 to 2019. He was the third Republican elected Kentucky governor since World War II, after Ernie Fletc ...
included $4.5 million in his biennial budget proposal to provide retention raises for correctional staff.


Health care

In July 2021, the department won a court ruling allowing it to deny health care to prisoners in order to save money. The ruling pertains to a treatment for
Hepatitis C Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. During the initial infection people often have mild or no symptoms. Occasionally a fever, dark urine, a ...
, which cost from $13,000 to $32,000.


See also

*
List of law enforcement agencies in Kentucky This is a list of law enforcement agencies in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics' 2008 ''Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies'', the state had 389 law enforcement agencies employing 7, ...
*
List of United States state correction agencies This is a list of corrections agencies in the states of the United States. State adult prison agencies * Alabama Department of Corrections * Alaska Department of Corrections * Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation & Reentry * Ark ...
*
List of U.S. state prisons This is a list of U.S. state prisons (2010) (not including federal prisons or county jails in the United States or prisons in U.S. territories): * Alabama * Alaska * Arizona * Arkansas * California * Colorado * Connecticut * Delaware * Flor ...
*
Prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...


References


External links


Kentucky DOC Website
{{authority control State law enforcement agencies of Kentucky State corrections departments of the United States
Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...