Fayette District Court has released 48 non-felon inmates from the Lexington jail. Officials say the release of low risk non-violent inmates was done to make it safer for the remaining jail population in light of coroniavirus.
The court says some of the 48 inmates are 60 years old and above and have pre-existing health conditions. Others had fewer than 45 days left on their court mandated sentences. The releases began last Friday and continued through Wednesday. Currently there are about 11 hundred inmates at the Fayette County Detention Center, down from a high of 1,565.
Mayor Gorton said, quote, “It’s important to us to make the jail as safe as we can. One obvious step was to selectively reduce the number of inmates.” On March tenth, the mayor closed the facility to visitors.?
Also, Gorton has reversed a new policy at the Fayette jail that unintentionally caused inmates to have to pay for phone calls and video conferences to talk to their attorneys.
On March 19th, the previous no visitor provision was expanded to include attorneys. The detention center has telephone and video conferencing for inmates. Gorton said the jail will no longer charge 14 cents per minute for phone calls and $7 for each video conference. In a new release, the mayor is quoted, saying “People in jail cannot work. Because of that, their families may already be having financial difficulties. Our intent was to improve safety, not increase the burden on these families.”?
