The Menifee County Fiscal Court is considering a partnership with a regional correctional facility.
County officials said under the proposed agreement, low-level offenders housed at the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex would be eligible to work within the county if they are within the last four years of their sentence. Work would include mowing grass and garbage cleanup along county roads, along with other basic manual labor.
Menifee County Judge Executive Rick Stiltner said an agreement like this one is a step in the right direction for the county.
“We talk about getting our prisoners, once they’re released and they’ve served their time, back out into the community, back out into the workforce,” he said. “We need them in the workforce, and to me, this is just a good way to help that.”
Stiltner said the cost of contracting those crews would be a flat rate of $13.95 a day for all four prisoners, along with a guard rate. That would bring the total to just over $200.
“If they’re working for Menifee County Fiscal Court, Menifee County would be paying that per day rate. If they’re working for the City of Frenchburg, they would be paying that per day rate. If they’re working for the school system, the school would be paying. None of us can use them full time,” he said. “I wouldn’t have enough for them to do to work them full time, every day, five days a week.
Stiltner added that similar agreements have been made with the correctional facility and the state, but if a partnership is established with the Fiscal Court, it would be the first of its kind with the county.