Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting (https://kycir.org/author/jbennett/)
Jared Bennett is an investigative reporter for the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting. Before KyCIR, he was a reporter the Center for Public Integrity and a digital producer for WBUR in Boston.
Current and former jail staff testified that Tracy Dotson has benefited from a culture of enforced loyalty and a contract which makes it difficult for jail management to hold bad actors accountable.
The Shelby County Detention Center isn’t offering remote hearings, leaving people with COVID without the chance to post bail or participate in their case.
More than 10,000 people are currently held in Kentucky prisons, and nearly 8,000 have gotten the coronavirus since the pandemic began.
The state has approved about a third of debt waiver requests — and most people can’t even apply.
The jail’s contract with Securus Technologies will have to be renegotiated to lower costs for incarcerated people’s loved ones.
His survey found “verbal” contracts, expired contracts or contracts signed without a formal bid process. The terms often included “technology grants” that were left open to interpretation, a one-time “signing bonus,” lines of credit for capital improvements and other incentive payments.
The Department of Corrections made at least $3.2 million last year off incarcerated people’s phone calls.
The report looked at the David McAtee shooting and the deployment as a whole. It made 66 recommendations — and released only 3.
The Kentucky National Guard promised to examine its protest response and draft recommendations for the future.
Although the state has oversight of local jails, state officials have been reluctant to wield it during the pandemic.