By Cindy Schroeder
The Cincinnati Enquirer

INDEPENDENCE - Kenton County officials OK'd an $800,000 renovation of the county detention center Tuesday, saying the project is needed to meet changing state mandates and save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

Although the decision was unanimous, members of county Fiscal Court expressed frustration that the improvements will not increase the jail's overall capacity, but will simply move prisoners from one part of the facility to another.

They said the project will buy them time, as they await a court ruling that would clear the way for construction of a new jail.

"I see this as a stop-gap measure that really is addressing a period of time while we wait for the Kentucky Supreme Court to decide whether or not we can build a (new jail)," Commissioner Barb Black said.

Last October, the Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled that Kenton County did not break the law when it raised its payroll tax on Jan. 1, 2001, to help pay for a new jail. The city of Covington and other plaintiffs appealed the case to the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Should the state Supreme Court agree to take the case, it could be another 12 to 18 months before a ruling is made, said Scott Kimmich, Kenton's deputy judge-executive. However, a new administration in the Kentucky Department of Corrections is requiring that the 33-year-old jail near Covington's Ohio riverfront be improved now, he said.

Otherwise, the county could be forced to house about 60 prisoners in other county jails "at considerable expense," Kimmich said.

"You're talking about a cost of $28 to $44 a day just to house a prisoner in another facility," Kimmich said.

That expense does not include inmates' medical care, transportation costs or overtime for deputies who would have to deliver the prisoners to other jails.

On top of that expense, which could average about $700,000 a year, the state has threatened to pull its nonviolent Class D prisoners, which it pays the county about $800,000 a year to house, County Jailer Terry Carl said. The county also uses those prisoners to perform various projects, saving the county about $700,000 a year in labor costs, he said.

Since the current administration took office in January 1999, the jail's average daily population has increased from "the low 300s" to the current "low to mid-400s," Carl said. The jail's average daily population could approach 500 as the weather warms, jail employees said.

The proposal by SchenkelShultz, a Frankfort architectural firm with more than 20 years experience in jails and criminal justice projects, calls for:

• Removing a wall and creating a 60-bed dorm on the jail's fifth floor, which currently houses the state's nonviolent Class D prisoners. That would enable jail officials to move 60 sentenced misdemeanor prisoners now being held in the jail's crowded, more secure upper floors. At most, Kenton has housed about 55 Class D prisoners in the fifth-floor area designed for 90, Carl said.

• Creating a medical and dental clinic on part of the third floor for improved, less-expensive health care.

• Spending about $75,000 to improve the security system, which the jailer said is old and needs extensive repairs. A new one would cost about $500,000, the architect estimated.

• Enclosing the sally port and modifying the booking area.

Harold Fletcher, a principal with Schenkel Shultz, said that firm sees the renovation as "a Band-Aid approach" that will get the county through the next three and half to four years.

County Commissioner Dan Humpert said that he's frustrated the county is being forced to play "musical beds" to meet ever-changing state requirements.

"But it sounds to me like the experts are saying we have to do this, or we'll be penalized," Humpert said.

The fiscal court also directed County Treasurer Ivan Frye to determine how to pay for the improvements with existing revenues. That plan must be presented to the fiscal court within 30 days.

E-mail cschroeder@enquirer.com