Jail near double max capacity

Oct. 6—The Pulaski County Detention Center is not a place you want to end up at. When referring to incarcerated individuals, one might say, 'They've made their bed, let them lie in it'. But according to jail officials, you're lucky if there are any beds left.

Jail and Prison overcrowding is hardly new. Since the beginning of the war on drugs, prisoner population has exploded. and though the jails are being constructed near constantly to keep up with the influx of new prisoners, there doesn't appear to be an end in sight, and Pulaski County is just as susceptible to this problem.

Jail in Pulaski County has a shaky history. The first time a jail is even mentioned in the historical record was in 1800 when a "small log house" was used as the first jail. The first building that was specifically constructed for jail was not until 1802. This new jail was "constantly out of repair," and a new jail was completed in 1820. This too became vestigial and was converted to a bank, and the County's jail inmates were simply held in the top floor of the courthouse.

However, with the drug epidemic raging in every corner of the nation, the courthouse quickly became woefully insufficient, and the Pulaski County Detention Center was erected in 1989. Only 71 prisoners filled the jail, and only half of the total 213 beds were needed to keep up.

"At that time, they felt they'd built a big enough jail for the future to take on the number of inmates that were being brought in," says Pulaski County Jailer Anthony McCollum. "Of course as we know, since '89, Pulaski County's grown."

McCollum points to three contributors to the growth of prisons: increase in population, increase in drug crimes, and increase in police officers.

Says McCollum, "We've got a lot more drug arrests here. We've got a lot more law enforcement officers. So with the population growing here and with more officers, there's going to be more people brought to the facility. As you know, with the drug epidemic we've got going on in Eastern Kentucky that doesn't help a lot either. With all those combinations together, [it] created a problem."

As previously mentioned, the jail was built to hold 213 inmates. As of press time, the jail holds 406 people, and McCollum says that's about average.

"At times we've reached up to 460," he says.

For many of the inmates, their crimes are drug arrests. As for the rest, McCollum says they're actually not that different.

"I think if you go around and look, even with their charges... burglary or theft... I think if you go down and look at the deep root of the causes, it all revolves around, in my opinion, the drug epidemic," he says. "I think we're facing a big problem here in Kentucky with the epidemic, and that's contributed a lot to most of the crimes that are being committed. It all goes back to the drug issue."

In order to house these individuals, the jail has been forced to convert rooms. Save for the front office, there's almost no room left.

"We're using every available space that is possible to keep it secure," says McCollum. "We've got several rooms that were designed for office areas. For recreation areas. When the originally designed, we're having to convert those areas now to use to house inmates."

Despite this massive overcrowding, McCollum claims the jail has not seen an infraction in years.

"The [Kentucky] Department of Corrections comes down and inspects the facility twice a year," he says. "We've been able to meet all of their standards except for the overcrowding. The [only] thing they've written us up for, for the last several years, is overcrowding. As far as the jail standards, we've been able to meet all those requirements. Their jail standards are being met as far as what the state requires us to do."

One way that some areas have tried to combat this issue is by legalizing drugs. Recreational marijuana has been legalized in many states and has seen some success in reducing crime — including violent crime. McCollum, though, is skeptical of these results.

Says McCollum, "In my opinion, any time you introduce drugs, whether legal or nonlegal in the community, I think it's going to be a problem. Just because you have easier access, I don't think that's going to cure the drug problem. As a community, I think we need to come together and work together in order to be able to deal with the drug problem. I think everybody knows the federal government or the state government is not going to be able to come down locally and be able to fight our own drug problem."

As for solutions, McCollum points instead towards offering former inmates options in employment, education, and even religion.

"We've community partnered with SPEDA, with the workforce development program, with the college, we're trying to be able to create an atmosphere that when they come out of jail, they've got a career, they've got employment, they've got housing, they've got money. We've got to think outside the box in order to create some programs," says McCollum. "We've got inmates that are out there working in the factories right now. We take them to work every day."

McCollum also pointed to what he called "success stories." Some inmates have found careers and stability. Their broken families have been reunited and their dependence on drugs has disappeared. Unfortunately, such success stories are few and far between, and McCollum blames this on a lack of drive.

"I think it all comes back to self-motivation," he says. "We give them the opportunities, but they have to have the self-motivation and the want to be able to change it. We give them the resources. We give them the ability to be able to change. Deep down it comes to them if they want to change it or not."

McCollum praised prevention programs put forward by Hal Rogers and pointed to this as ways for would-be offenders to avoid resorting to crime and to find the "motivation" he speaks about.

Ultimately, there are no easy solutions to this issue. Pulaski County could build a new jail, of course, which could house the prison population, but until the drug epidemic is defeated, this solution could be just kicking the can down the road.