LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The system Louisville judges and Metro Corrections employees use to release inmates is outdated, riddled with mistakes and complicated by a revolving door of jail staffers without the necessary experience and training.
These are a few of the conclusions a city-commissioned audit found that have caused Metro Corrections inmates to be improperly released from the jail, either too early or late - errors that could cost the city in civil lawsuits.
The audit, conducted by GCL Companies and released last month, made several recommendations, including a change in a paper-driven method currently used by judges that "adds confusion and complication to an already difficult process."
Jail officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Auditors reviewed records from 2016 to 2018 and found that court orders – generally from Jefferson District Court judges and their clerks - often had missing or illegible information, causing jail employees to have to call judicial clerks. That extra step delays the release of inmates.
It cost the jail $84,000 a year to clarify the court orders, according to the audit. The cost for the courts was not included. The audit estimated that 23 court orders every day, or about four percent, need some sort of clarification.
The orders were in such poor shape that a "comprehensive audit could not be conducted on the court order system," the audit concludes. "The Metro Government's desire to audit the system and objectively determine how quickly and accurately orders are processed, and to determine where systemic issues may exist, cannot be realized due to the significant amount of missing and illegible information found in court orders."
Court orders are "manually" transmitted to the jail where a worker then prints it out to process.
And the system can be easily manipulated by employees "with ill-intent" against an inmate as "paper documents could easily go missing, be deleted from email inboxes or even taken," according to the audit.
The audit does not mention any examples of jail employees intentionally removing documents.
The audit recommended using an automated system that could indicate when a court order hasn't been acted upon and create better monitoring of employees with an audit trail.
Metro Corrections provided information on 16 release errors in 2016, 4 in 2017 and 17 in 2018, according to the audit.
Some of the errors were "obvious mistakes" by jail employees while others were because of conflicting orders.
"It was also clear from our review that high turnover rates in the LMDC Records Office, resulting in inexperienced staff, likely contributed to a number of release errors," according to the audit.
The audit pointed out that Kentucky ranked among the lowest states in the nation in pay for those employees. It recommenced the pay level be evaluated.
These release errors can lead to "potentially costly litigation," according to the audit.
In several cases, according to the audit, inmates themselves reported to jail staff that they were improperly released.
The audit found one inmate who was let out of Metro Corrections 127 days before the actual release date.
Metro Corrections has been under constant scrutiny in the last few years for alleged repeated failures to properly release inmates.
Corrections director Mark Bolton was called before the Metro Council's Public Safety Committee in 2017 and asked about why inmate David Reyes stayed in the jail five months after serving out his sentence. An internal investigation concluded the delay was due to error by the jail's computer system that was not caught by employees.
Also, attorneys for five former inmates have filed a federal lawsuit against the city and Bolton, claiming hundreds of inmates have been unlawfully imprisoned by being detained after judges ordered them released. That case is pending.
And Bolton and his top staffers were threatened with contempt of court in 2017 by a Jefferson District Court judge who alleged the jail is not following orders on releasing inmates.
In addition, a separate audit of the jail by the Louisville Metro Office of Internal Audit was released last year and found many of the same problems with an outdated system and unqualified employees.
Jail officials and chief judges for both Jefferson circuit and district courts all indicated in that audit they would work together to fix the problems.
And the latest audit also noted changes are being made to improve the system, including sending orders electronically and working to ensure clarity. The audit, however, concluded the changes only "begin to address a portion of the issues with the current system."
The jail and courts use different computer systems so the audit recommends the city purchase a single integrated system that automates the entire process.
It notes that the system is expensive, pointing out it cost Fulton County, Georgia $15 million to install the system and $10 million in Lubbock County, Texas.
A cheaper option would be to develop software allowing the two systems to work together, costing about $350,000.
In the meantime, the audit recommends improving the paper-drive process by using more employees and creating a liaison between the jail and courts to improve communication.
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