The Kentucky Senate has approved a bill that would place more accountability requirements on counties that have jailers but no jails. A recent review by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting found that since the 1970s, 41 counties have closed their jails for budgetary or compliance reasons.
Though all of those counties have a jailer, which is a constitutional office in Kentucky, many of those jailers have little or no official duties but draw a full salary.
The Senate bill, sponsored by Republican Danny Carroll of Paducah, would require jailers to submit quarterly reports on their job duties to fiscal courts, would require the courts to establish job requirements for county jailers and only make salary adjustments based on increases in the consumer price index.
