LOUISVILLE, Ky. — ‘Obsolete and poorly designed’ were some of the words used to describe many of the problems within Louisville Metro Corrections following a 20-page report.
Mayor Greg Fischer hired an outside consultant, President Gary Rainey of GAR Inc. Justice Consulting, to investigate the troubled facility after a string of deaths over the last year.
Eleven inmates have died inside Metro Corrections since Nov. 2021 – some by suicide and some from overdoses.
"I want to know where the gaps are, as well as the leadership at the jail does," Mayor Fischer said.
Raney spent three days at the facility in February.
In the report, he called the jail "obsolete and poorly designed," and claims that has "contributed to poor practices by staff."
During his investigation, Raney said he did not find any cells that were "suicide resistant."
Raney added "bars, bunks and fixtures in cells facilitate suicide attempts," which Fischer assures he will work on before leaving office.
"Any issue that we can address, we have been and will continue to do that," he said.
As for contraband, "there is a common belief in the LMDC that some contraband is attributable to corrupt staff," Raney wrote in the report.
"Currently, staff are supposed to have transparent bags/backpacks, but the policy is widely ignored."
Inmates who work inside the facility also have "constant, unsupervised access," according to the report.
"This is unheard of in other jails," Raney said.
However, Daniel Johnson, president of the Metro Corrections FOP disagrees with Raney findings.
"There were certain things in there that just weren't true," Johnson said.
Johnson said Raney even admitted that he could have received "inaccurate information or made a false assumption" in the report. He also said many of the issues reported were already addressed.
"Because he came in the spring under the prior administration and a lot of the suggestions he was making were already requested, already being made, and being made public by the FOP," he said.
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