Mercer, Boyle Counties ‘Lost at Sea” Struggling With Jail Overcrowding
After two meetings, the Boyle and Mercer County Joint Jail Committee have not reached a decision about hiring a consultant to research solutions to overcrowding at Boyle County Detention Center.
The committee met Friday, Aug. 4, at the Mercer County Fiscal Court to hear presentations from three consultants: Brandstetter Carroll Inc. of Lexington, CGL, an international corporation that specializes in planning, designing, managing and maintaining public facilities including jails, court complexes and juvenile detention centers, and HDR, an architectural, engineering and consulting firm based in Omaha, Nebraska, with offices in Louisville, Lexington and Paducah.
“We believe that the first step to solving the problem is to develop a plan,” said Eric Chambers of Brandstetter Carroll. Chambers pointed out his firm’s work on the Kenton County Detention Center, which he said had been trapped in a 25-year planning process. “Plans don’t matter if you don’t implement them.”
Another Brandstetter Carroll representative, Monica Sumner, said the current situation has Mercer and Boyle ready to sink.
“These two counties are like a canoe in the ocean,” Sumner explained, “They are lost at sea.”
Joint jail officials, including Mercer County Attorney Ted Dean, Judge-Executive Milward Dedman and Treasurer Sandy Sanders and Boyle County Jailer Barry Harmon, have deferred hiring a consultant to advise them on what to do about the Boyle County Detention Center.
To learn more, check out this week’s issue of The Harrodsburg Herald.
