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The Harlan County Fiscal Court took action during a recent meeting for the county to be reimbursed for the expense of inmate work crews.

Harlan County Judge-Executive Dan Mosley brought the topic up to the magistrates.

“This is the contract that we have with the state that we did a couple of years ago,” Mosley said. “We provide some of the male inmates to assist transportation crews to do various things.”

Mosley said inmates may perform tasks such as ditching, tree removal and tile cleaning.

“Mr. Perkins (Robert Perkins of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet) had stated how much work they have to get done and that they’ve been short staffed,” Mosley said. “What he didn’t say was that they’ve not had access to these inmate work crews during the pandemic.”

According to Mosley, inmates could not be used during the COVID-19 pandemic because the Department of Corrections had placed restrictions impacting inmate work programs.

“Hopefully, by putting this contract back into place, they will be able to help do some maintenance on state roads that we can all see needs to be done,” Mosley said. “It would be my recommendation that we enter into this contract.”

Mosley mentioned the state provided timely reimbursements when such a contract was previously in place.

Magistrate Bill Moore made a motion to approve a contract between the Harlan County Fiscal Court and the Commonwealth of Kentucky for reimbursement for work crews. The motion was seconded by Magistrate James Howard. The motion was passed with no opposition.

The court also approved a contract between the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the Harlan County Fiscal Court for work crew supervisors.

“This is a companion to the previous item,” Mosley advised.

The court also approved a contract between the Harlan County Fiscal Court and the Commonwealth of Kentucky for reimbursement for mileage for inmate work crew transportation.

In other Fiscal Court activity:
• The court approved a contract between the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the Harlan County Fiscal Court establishing an agreement for substance abuse and addiction treatment effective 7/1/2022 – 6/30/2024;
• The court reflected a proposed budget for the Harlan County Detention Center for fiscal year 2023 has been received;
• A change order with Jenmar Services for the AML Portal 31 Project in the amount of $9,500 was approved.