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Ohio Co. testing cost-saving initiative

By Cory Stark - bio | email | Twitter
Posted by Sarah Harlan - email

OHIO CO., KY (WFIE) - Starting January 1, in nine Kentucky counties, those arrested for most nonviolent crimes will be able to post bail immediately instead of going to jail.

State officials said it could save millions.

The Ohio County Detention Center is one of the counties selected.

"Every county jail has seen the budget hurt," Jailer Rip Wright with the Ohio County Detention Center said. "We are really hurting and every county is, so anything to save county taxpayers money, we are for it."

Some state officials said this initiative could save the state over $150 million a year.

People arrested for marijuana possession, minor traffic offenses and shop lifting, just to name a few, would qualify for immediate release after posting a pre-set bond.

Wright said the initiative will save money.

"We usually keep them for 12 hours before they are seen by pre-trial," Wright said. "We have to dress them, put them up and every eight hours we feed them. So that will save money."

But not everyone agrees.

"I can't see it saving us much money at all," Muhlenberg County Jailer Mark Curry said. "It could help some, but not a big savings."

Curry said with their current system, pre-trial officers meet with newly booked inmates twice a day and there is little delay in setting a bond.

"A pre-set bond, don't know how it will help us much," Curry said. 

But there is one thing that both jailers agree on.

"It will help us with the overcrowded beds, because there is some times where we have people on the floor, and not just a couple, quite a few," Wright said. 

"I don't like overcrowding, but it happens everywhere," Curry said. "Overcrowding is part of jail and prison life I suppose."

The initiative will go in effect January 1 at the nine selected jails.

It will later be determined if the initiative should be expanded statewide.

Officials with the nine county jails will meet with state officials December 16 to work out the final details before the initiative takes effect January 1. 

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