OFFICIAL OFFERS DIRE JAIL OUTLOOK

Jail officials told Henderson Fiscal Court on Tuesday that decreasing
revenues and increasing costs threaten to bankrupt the county if current
trends continue.

"This facility could break this county" in the next five to 10 years if no
action is taken, said Col. Ron Herrington, who is second in command at the
Henderson County Detention Center. "We're headed for some tough times."

The jail was built nearly a decade ago on the premise that housing state
prisoners would make it self-supporting. But Herrington told the court that
a number of factors are converging to decrease the number of state prisoners.

In the year 2000, he said, the jail averaged 184 state prisoners, for which
the county is paid about $27 a day. Currently, he said, there are 87 state
prisoners.

Local inmates, for which the county pays the entire cost, averaged 108 in
2000 but are now at 171, he said.

"Our paying revenue is going straight down and our county inmates are going
up," Herrington said.

A number of other factors play into the equation, Herrington said, but the
bottom line is that drug cases -- particularly those involving
methamphetamine -- are clogging up the local court system and the local jail.

"This is a symptom of the drug problem in this county," said public
defender Greg Sutton. "The meth problem is just covering us up."

Commonwealth Attorney Bill Markwell said probably 75 percent of the local
criminal caseload is somehow drug related. Most of those charged for drug
crimes spend probably 190 days in jail before they are sentenced and become
state inmates, he said.

Markwell said his office and the office of Circuit Judge Steve Hayden are
attempting to set up a special drug court, which could cut that down to 30
days or less.

"We are aware of the problem and are taking some steps to assist," Markwell
said.