Scott Wartman

swartman@nky.com

A Northern Kentucky county's plan to close its jail has already had one major impact: mass confusion.

The county has sued itself. Prominent Republicans and Democrats agree the jail needs to be kept open - even as the jail moves towards a seemingly inevitable closure.

It's just the latest mess in Grant County, about 30 miles south of Cincinnati.

“Nobody knows what to expect,” said Dry Ridge Mayor Jim Wells. “They’re suing themselves, and I don’t understand that.”

How did we get here?

The county has three months to find a place to house its prisoners. That’s the timeframe the Grant County Fiscal Court gave itself to close the jail, something it voted to do in July.

The impending closure of the jail comes after a decade of lawsuits, prisoner escapes and scandals involving the detention center. A feud between Judge-executive Stephen Wood and Jailer Chris Hankins has brought the situation to a head. They’ve fought since they both took office 19 months ago.

Some trace the latest kerfuffle back to the release of a videotape leaked in 2015 that showed Wood and Deputy judge-executive Scott Kimmich telling sexist jokes. That led to a discrimination lawsuit filed by a former employee that the county recently settled for $150,000.

What's happening now?

The Grant County judge-executive and jailer are trying to work out their differences. But a lawsuit the county has filed against itself has further complicated the issue.

The fiscal court filed a lawsuit at the end of July against its jailer. The county accused Hankins of selling jail vehicles and putting the titles into his own name, a charge Hankins denied, and misusing county property. Hankins in the lawsuit provided titles proving the vehicles are in the name of the county, not himself. The county is seeking seeks compensation for the sold property and an injunction on the jailer selling jail property in the final months before the jail closes.

“As this court is undoubtedly and inescapably aware, there exists between these parties a substantial rift regarding the management and funding of the Grant County Detention Center,” the county wrote in the lawsuit.

How will they keep the jail open?

Both sides are trying to work through the rancor to keep the jail open.

Wood and Hankins met Wednesday behind closed doors with their lawyers present to see if they could work out a compromise. They couldn’t.

They had just made the walk from the county courthouse earlier that morning where the two sides squared off in the courtroom in a preliminary hearing.

The county and jailer are “working on something,” but Judge-Executive Wood wouldn’t say what that is. The county also had an appraiser look at the jail in possible preparation to sell it to a private prison company or a developer, Wood said. The appraiser hasn’t given them a value yet.

“It’s too up in the air,” said Wood. “I don’t mean to be rude. I’m not trying to be vague, but I don’t know.”

Who wants the jail open?

Both Democrats and Republicans in the county hope they can find a way to keep the jail open. It's united the two parties, some have said...well, at least on the jail issue in Grant County.

Bill Adkins, a prominent Democratic attorney, wants the jail to remain open and for Wood and Kimmich to resign. He sees the issue as personal between Wood and Kimmich and Hankins.

“They’ve become toxic to Grant County in the 18 to 20 months they’ve been in office,” Adkins said.

Even though Wood and the other three members of the fiscal court are all Republicans, Pete Whaley, a prominent Republican attorney, finds fault with how they’ve handled the situation.

“If you get Bill (Adkins) and me on the same side of the issue, something’s gone wrong,” Whaley said with a chuckle.

He agrees the jail needs to be kept open, but stopped just short of calling for the resignations of Wood and Kimmich.

“I’m upset and very shocked and dismayed this has gone on the last 18 months,” Whaley said. “I don’t see how the current administration can lead.”

Wood, however, defended himself, saying he doesn’t have a vendetta against the jail. He said he’s protecting the county from incurring increasing costs to run the jail.

“I don’t have a personal vendetta against the jail, I swear I don’t,” Wood said. “I’m CEO of the county. We’re going to lose more money from the jail, and I’m not going to break this county.”

So what needs to happen?

The county and jailer need to either find a way to make repairs to the jail or find counties willing to take their prisoners.

Hankins said it's Grant County Fiscal Court’s responsibility to pay for the repairs, which includes broken air conditioning and water pipes.

Certain cells had no running water and temperatures above 90 degrees.

“You can’t house a human being in that condition,” Hankins said.

The jail’s condition drew the ire of the Kentucky Department of Corrections in July 22 with an inspection listing dozens of issues including exposed wires, broken sinks and lack of air conditioning. The state gave the county 30 days to come up with a plan to correct the issues. Otherwise it would no longer be allowed to house state inmates, Hankins said. It can still house county in the air-conditioned portions.

County jails rely on the income from housing state felons. The state pays $31.34 per inmate per day.

Neither side knows how much the repairs would cost.

Grant Insp Order 1 St 2016

Grant Non Compliance

Who's to blame?

Both sides are blaming each other.

Wood said it’s the responsibility of the jailer to make the repairs out of his budget.

“That’s his fault, not mine,” Wood said. “He’s over the jail. He’s got line-items to do that. Have you visited the jail? Have you seen where faucets are leaking? Do you think that’s my job?”

The jail’s budget can’t pay for the repairs, Hankins said. County officials have accused Hankins of going over budget repeatedly, sometimes by over $150,000 in a single month.

The fiscal court hasn’t given the jailer the money or the authority he needs to run the jail, said Shane Sidebottom, attorney for Hankins.

“The jail had a long history of problems,” Sidebottom said. “They came in and tried to micromanage too much. (The jailer) hasn’t been able to run the jail and put his stamp on it.”

If they can’t reach an agreement, then Grant County will have to pay for someone to take the prisoners. That’s easier said then done, as most counties in the region have said their full.

In the meantime, Dry Ridge’s mayor doesn’t know what his police department will do with people arrested in his city in a few months.

“What does this mean that I don’t have a jail?” Wells said. “I don’t know what I’ve got to do. Do I have to build a jail cell?”