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RODNEY KING, 1965-2012

Life was constant struggle

Infamous 1991 beating set off deadly L.A. riots
By Anthony McCartney
Associated Press

EARLY-RELEASE PLAN ARRESTS JAIL PROFITS

LOS ANGELES His beating stunned the nation, left Los Angeles smoldering and helped reshape race relations and police tactics. And in a quavering voice on national television, Rodney King pleaded for peace while the city burned. But peace never quite came for King not after the fires died down, after two of the officers who broke his skull multiple times were punished, after Los Angeles and its flawed police department moved forward. King His life, which ended Sunday at age 47 after he was pulled from the bottom of his swimming pool, was a continual struggle even as the city he helped change moved on. The images preserved on an infamous grainy video of the black driver curled up on the ground while four white officers clubbed him over 50 times with batons became a national symbol of police brutality in 1991. More than a year later, when the officers acquittals touched off one of the most destructive race riots in history, his scarred face and soft-spoken question Can we all get along? spurred the nation to confront its difficult racial history. But while Los Angeles race relations and the citys police department made strides forward, King kept coming before police and courts, struggling with alcohol addiction and arrests, periodically reappearing publicly for a stint on Celebrity Rehab or a celebrity boxing match. He spent the last months of his life promoting a memoir he titled The Riot Within: From Rebellion to Redemption.

Oldham County Jail inmates Nathan Robinson, left, and Jeffrey Bell open bags of recycling items and sort them at the Oldham County Recycling Center. Jail inmates make up most of the staff at the center in Buckner. MICHAEL CLEVENGER/THE COURIER-JOURNAL

Many counties feeling pinch as states needs decrease

By Emily Hagedorn
ehagedorn@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal

See KING, Page A2

Until recently, Christian County officials saw their jail in Hopkinsville as a moneymaker. Knowing they could increase revenue by housing state prisoners as well as county inmates, they expanded the jail growing it from 94 beds in the 1990s to 707 beds today. It took in as much as $200,000 more than it needed to cover its expenses some years, meaning that the county coffers didnt have to help cover costs, Jailer Brad Boyd said. But now because the state has start-

ed releasing prisoners early to save money and help with rehabilitation it has more beds than it needs. So far this year, more than 2,100 state inmates have been released up to six months earlier than their original sentences. And the issue is not unique to the Christian County jail, which has seen 58 state inmates released early and may need $2.5 million from the county in the coming year to help offset losses. County jails across Kentucky have been overbuilt because, as in Christian County, they were expanded to make room for state prisoners. The 19,727 jail
See RELEASE, Page A5

KENTUCKY JAIL BEDS

20,000 15 10 5 0

19,727
10,477

00

02

04

06

08

10

12

SOURCE: Kentucky Department of Corrections

THE COURIER-JOURNAL

By Darla Carter

Campaign aims to end the silence about hearing loss among elderly
sume a normal life at his Louisville home and to enjoy his hobby playing the guitar. To help people like Vitale and their families, the American Speech-LanguageHearing Association has launched a national publicity campaign to encourage older people who have a suspected hearing loss to come forward for treatment. The campaign, called Speak Up About Hearing Loss, has a simple but important aim: to put hearing loss among older people on the family kitchen table for discussion that will hopefully lead to action, association President Shelly Chabon said in a statement.
See CAMPAIGN, Page A4

dcarter@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal

IN THE PRIME

Tony Vitale participates in a hearing test last month. Vitale, who now has two hearing aids, said he had initially ignored problems with his hearing. MICHAEL CLEVENGER/THE COURIER-JOURNAL

After years of working in the tire business, with its noisy air tools, Tony Vitale was having trouble hearing people. But like many people with hearing loss, Vitale, 83, put off getting his hearing checked until his family noticed the problem, and his son, Dr. Gary Vitale, whos a surgeon, urged him to see a doctor. A lot of times somebody would say something and I didnt understand it because it wasnt clear and I would just sort of ignore it and go along with the conversation, said Tony Vitale, who now has two hearing aids that have allowed him to re-

Go along for a hearing test at the Heuser Hearing Institute through a video, along with information on food, fitness, finance and fun for a healthy lifestyle, at www.courierjournal.com/ prime

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FROM PAGE ONE |

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THE COURIER-JOURNAL

MONDAY, JUNE 18, 2012

| A5

RELEASE: Kentuckys need to house prisoners in county facilities drops

Continued from Page A1

beds that exist statewide today are nearly double the number Kentuckys counties had in 2000. According to the state, Bullitt County expanded from 56 beds to 305, Oldham from 80 to 115; Shelby from 137 to 312 and Hardin from 383 to 646. In Louisville, Metro Corrections expanded from 1,213 to 1,774 beds, but the increase was not to house state inmates. Fewer state prisoners could be good for the state its expected to save $40 million over a year but hard on counties, which also rely on inmates for free labor. Its costing a bunch of money, no doubt about it, said Christian County Judge-Executive Steve Tribble. Kentuckys situation is unusual because roughly one-third of all state and federal prisoners in Kentucky are housed in county jails, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Thats second only to Louisiana (52 percent). Most states avoid the practice. Using jails doesnt make sense from a corrections point of view because it causes all sorts of problems, said James Austin, an expert on criminal justice practices and president of the JFA Institute in Washington, D.C. Austin, who has also advised Kentucky legislators on corrections issues, said the problems include requiring parole boards to travel to jails to conduct hearings and prisoners facing different conditions of confinement, depending on the jail. Kentuckys shift toward housing state prisoners in jails largely began with a law in the early 1990s that required most Class D felony offenders people convicted of nonviolent, less serious offenses with sentences of less than five years to serve their time in county jails, rather than in state prisons, which were overcrowded. Eventually some Class C felons, who serve five to 10 years for more serious crimes, were added as well. The law was seen as a cost-saving measure for the state. Rather than build more prisons, we could house them in jails, state Rep. John Tilley said. And many counties saw it as an opportunity. For some of these counties, it was almost a cottage industry, state Sen. Tom Jensen said. They went out and built some really nice facilities. Take the Fulton County Detention Center in Western Kentucky, for example. It had just 19 beds but now has more than 350 after four additions. We had plenty of inmates, Fulton County Jailer Ricky Parnell said. At his facility, close to 70 inmates have been released early this year the most of any jail. While some of these beds have been filled by other felons, the loss has left the jail financially strapped. Parnell laid off six deputy jailers, and he fears more cuts may be on the way. Ill never be able to hire those people back, he said. The state Department of Corrections didnt guarantee that any jail would get enough state inmates to fill it, spokeswoman Lisa Lamb said. Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown said the states goal is to reduce the number of people incarcerated not to help fill county jails. We recognize the situation that the counties are in, but it is certainly not good public policy to try to generate prisoners, he said. Brown said the law passed last year Tilley

HOW EARLY RELEASE WORKS IN KENTUCKY

To be released under the mandatory re-entry supervision program, an inmate must meet several qualifications. These include: Having six months or less left in sentence. Being eligible for parole. Having been sentenced initially to two years or more. Having not been convicted of a capital offense or Class A felony. Having not been classified as maximum or close security. Having not previously been released on mandatory re-entry supervision during incarceration. Offenders are reviewed for eligibility when their release date nears, and, upon approval, officials begin the process of securing suitable home and job placement. Source: Kentucky Dept. of Corrections

A cottage industry

Empty beds are seen in the Christian County Jails restricted custody center in Hopkinsville. Kentucky is releasing minimum- and medium-security inmates early to reduce the cost of housing them. PHOTO PROVIDED BY STEPHEN LANCE DENNEE and Jensen were its main supporters enacted several significant changes in the state criminal justice system, including early release, and it will help in more ways than just saving money for the state. The early-release program aims to let out more than 3,000 inmates this year, and of the inmates released early so far, roughly half have come from jails. The fewer people we have in prisons and we dont have to spend money on them, the more we can pump that into other areas, Brown said. The new law also was designed to help prisoners find jobs and homes, and it aims to reduce recidivism. Close to 20 percent of the inmates who have been released early this year already have violated terms of their release or re-offended, with many of the crimes being alcohol- or drug-related. While officials say its too early to tell if that statistic will stick, it is still half of the historically 40 percent of prisoners who commit crimes after being released. A portion of the savings from the bill are also being set aside in a special fund that jails can pull from in the future. The Kentucky Jailers Association, the Kentucky Association of Counties and the Kentucky County Judge-Executive Association are among the groups that endorsed the early-release law even though they knew they might suffer. Long term, thats really going to be a lot of savings for the state and counties, said Richard Tanner, executive director of the Kentucky Magistrates and Commissioners Association, which also endorsed the bill. Temporarily, it will be a bump in the road. But it may be a bump that some counties find hard to get over. Counties receive $31.34 per day to house a state inmate. The Daviess County Detention Center in Owensboro, for example, was down at one point about 100 inmates from a couple of years ago, said Jailer David Osborne. The reduction was equal to about $1 million annually. If I dont have those state inmates, I have empty beds, and I still have the same amount of area I have to cover with personnel, he said. Because their crimes are usually nonviolent, the state inmates are often considered perfect candidates for public work crews, which provide labor at no cost to the counties. So when those prisoners are released early, there are fewer crew members who can perform those tasks, and without that help, counties may have to hire people for those duties. For example, in Oldham County, jail inmates make up most of the staff at the recycling center in Buckner. Bullitt County regularly has 10 to 12 inmates out in the community at a time, picking up trash along roadways and mowing grass on county property. Bullitt Jailer Martha Knox said her jail suffered a small blow with the loss of six inmates. A lot of communities rely on those work crews. Thats a great program, Tilley said. But at the end of the day, thats still not a free ride. The taxpayer foots the bill for those crews. Besides the early-release program, the new law allows police officers to write citations, rather than arrest alleged offenders, for some misdemeanors. That can further reduce jail populations, but it saves counties money because they would be covering the expenses of those inmates. While jailers understand their facilities might lose prisoners because of the reforms, they have an idea that could inflate their bottom lines: Close the states private prisons. I dont think we should be helping the private sector when weve got counties that are suffering, said Parnell of Fulton County. Kentucky has two private prisons: the 656-bed Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright and the 826-bed Marion Adjustment Center near Lebanon. Both are medium/minimum-security facilities and are managed by Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America. Earlier this year, state officials announced that they would not renew the contract with Otter Creek, and the facility is expected to shut down by the end of July. Some of those inmates will be moved to the Northpoint Training Center in Burgin, which is reopening following damage from riots in 2009. The contract with the Marion Adjustment Center was recently approved for another year. But Brown, along with Tilley and Jenson, are in favor of moving out of privatization. While jails are paid $31.34 per day per state inmate, the state pays Marion Adjustment Center $37.99 a day for minimumsecurity inmates and $47.98 per day for mediumsecurity inmates. Otter Creek has been paid $44.26 per day per inmate. If they (the jails) can offer those services, I think they should be able to get first crack at it, Tilley said. The private facilities are major employers in their towns, though. Nearly 200 people will be out of a job when Otter Creek closes, but Corrections Corporation of America is helping employees find jobs at their other facilities, said spokesman Steve Owen. The inmates at the private facilities are also able to take advantage of educational and vocational services, along with drug rehabilitation, which jails might not have, he said. You have to look at the scope of services youre receiving for the cost, Owen said, adding that the private facilities are still cheaper than the $60.02 it costs on average to house an inmate in a state prison per day. Moving inmates housed at private prisons into the jails also flies in the face of current reforms, Austin said. You already have a lot of people being housed at the local level, and the state should be looking at ways to diminish that instead of increasing it, he said. Its going to be a headache, I

More early releases

Major employers

think, of maintaining a quality of care at a bunch of places (jails) as opposed to one place (the private prison). But jailers, county officials and others are quick to point out that theyve already housed these inmates before. Those more hardened, higher-security folks started out in a county jail ... before they ever went to the state, said Denny Nunnelley, executive director and CEO of the Kentucky Association of Counties. Theyve been there already and were handled well.
Reporter Emily Hagedorn can be reached at (502) 582-4621.

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