COUNTIES SEE INMATES AS SOURCE OF INCOME

Williamstown - The Grant County Detention Center is a popular place, even
if those filling the building to the brim didn't choose to be there.

When county officials built the 28-bed facility a decade ago, they figured
doubling the capacity of the old jail would provide enough space for
several years. But with prisoners now numbering more than 50, officials are
planning an expansion with enough beds not only for county inmates but for
people convicted in other counties and by the state.

When finished, the new Grant County Detention Center will have at least 225
beds and possibly 300. In neighboring Pendleton County, officials are
studying their own jail project, discussing plans to close an outdated
19-bed facility in favor of a new building with 50 to 75 beds.

Such jumps in jail size are becoming more common as Kentucky counties eye
the money to be made by housing pris-oners who are another government's
responsibility.

"It's a business now," said Jim Woodrum, president of Architecture Plus,
the design firm working on Grant County's jail and a dozen similar projects
in Kentucky.

More and more, county officials are finding that running a detention center
just for county inmates requires annual funding, Woodrum said, but building
a larger jail and charging other counties or the state to house prisoners
can cover expenses.

"Every county we're working with right now," he said, "they want to build
big enough to house other counties' or state prisoners to help defray
costs."

Bigger appears better where state inmate numbers are concerned. Of the
nearly 8,700 beds in 72 full-service jails in Kentucky's counties, 3,200 -
more than one-third - hold state prisoners, said Chuck Hughes, assistant
director of the state Department of Corrections' Division of Local
Facilities. Prisoners in county jails include those waiting for a spot in
state prisons or felons convicted of lesser crimes.

With state inmates joining county prisoners, jails are crowded. The
500-bed Fayette County Detention Center's inmate population peaked last
month at 742 prisoners; crowding has led judges to reduce bonds or let
defendants go free before trial, as well as consider shorter sentences or
home detention.

It won't get better. The state inmate population is projected to grow by
1,000 a year over the next 10 years, Hughes said. The more than 3,000
inmates in county jails could grow to 10,000, Woodrum said.

"Counties cannot build jails fast enough to keep up with needs," he said.

But they're trying, to the tune of about 60 jail projects since new state
standards went into effect about 15 years ago, Woodrum said. Across the
state, jails are adding anywhere from 20 to 200 beds, Hughes said; with
24-hour wear-and-tear, jails don't have lengthy life spans - 20 years is
long - but some county facilities are expanding after opening only a few
years ago.

The Grant County Detention Center, built in the mid-1980s, costs $445,000 a
year in county funds to run, Judge-Executive Shirley Howard said. An
expansion will cost a lot - $4.9 million for 225 beds and $6 million for
300 - but the jail should be self-supporting from charges to house other
prisoners, Howard said.

"We are going to have to do something regardless," he said.

And Grant County is just following the lead of nearby jails. In 1991, the
76-bed Scott County Detention Center tripled the size of a run-down jail as
part of a $4.5 million justice complex.

Even with the extra room, Jailer Virgil Sagaser said he could use more
space, especially to add more federal inmates, one-third of the jail's
prisoners; with a third floor, 60 more federal inmates at a rate of $30 a
day means $650,000 a year.

"I could operate in the black," he said.

That was Bourbon County Judge-Executive Charles Hinkle's goal when he
studied a new jail about 10 years ago. The fiscal court ultimately voted
for virtually no expansion - going from 72 to 78 - but Jailer Mike Fryman
said he'd like more space, expecially with the glut of state prisoners.

"The times you're only at 100 percent are rare," he said. "If you've got
enough beds for everybody, you're doing good."

While Scott County jail takes federal inmates along with people charged in
the county, Bourbon County holds prisoners from Harrison and Nicholas
counties and the state. Pendleton county also looks to tap that market of
counties without jails.

Judge-Executive Donald Mays approached Harrison County officials recently
about holding Harrison County inmates in a bigger Pendleton County jail.
The Pendleton county fiscal court - under a state order to close or revamp
its 19-bed jail - will vote on March 12 on planning a new jail, which could
cost $2 million and have 50 to 75 beds, Mays said.

"If we have more room, it'll help pay for itself," he said.

With all the prisoners out there, Mays may get his wish.

"The said part is," Fryman said, "there's enough to go around for everybody."