By Taylor Six and Beth Musgrave
Lexington Herald-Leader
LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Fayette County Detention Center has not updated its policy and procedures manual for the jail in 15 years, despite state law requiring at least one yearly review, records show.
The Lexington jail has not had formal policies adopted and approved by Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council since 2011, according to documents obtained through the Kentucky Open Records Act and a review of the council’s legislative record.
A jail’s policy and procedures manual is an operational document that establishes rules, safety standards and guidelines to keep the facility compliant with state law.
More specifically, the document outlines supervision rules, housing separations, count times, cell search, medical and dietary care and inmate rights and discipline.
Kentucky law requires jails and the local government to amend and approve the policy and procedures manual at least once a year. This is designed to help ensure a facility is adhering to constantly changing safety and operational laws.
But documents received by the Lexington Herald-Leader through an Open Records Act request show the jail has been repeatedly found in non-compliance with the Kentucky Department of Correction’s regulations.
Susan Straub, a spokesperson for the city, confirmed the legal team was reviewing the manual, and that council would approve it after the review process.
“In 2024, right after he became Director of Community Corrections, and while also handling a number of pressing challenges at the jail, Chief (Scott) Colvin recognized that an update was needed, and organized a group to totally rewrite our 130-page manual that includes 222 individual directives,” Straub said. “The draft was submitted to our Law Department in 2025. Law is continuing to review it. We anticipate asking the Council to approve the updated manual once it is completed.”
Straub said the jail frequently updates its policies but has not updated its annual manual. There is a difference, she said.
“First, it’s important to recognize that the specific orders that cover the daily operations of our jail, and the care provided to our inmates, are frequently updated on an ongoing basis,” Straub said. “ While, the policy manual, which sets broad organization rules and general standards to be achieved, requires less frequent updates. “
When Colvin was hired in 2022, the jail was facing severe staffing shortages and plummeting morale. Under Colvin’s leadership, those issues have dramatically improved, city officials have said.
Lexington jail’s last policy update was in 2011
The Kentucky Department of Corrections inspects a local jail twice a year. Except for 2021 and 2022, the Lexington jail has been marked as non-compliant with a note from the inspector that officials are using a policy that is more than a decade old.
In the 2021 and 2022 reports, a note was made by the inspector that a memo from a jail captain said no changes were needed to the manual, and opted not to send it to the council for approval.
“The last date I have seen for Policy and Procedure approval by council was in 2011,” a 2023 inspection report reads.
When an inspection finds non-compliance, the jail has an opportunity to issue a “good faith” corrective action plan on how they will remedy the problem.
As recently as Aug. 6, 2026, the jail informed DOC inspectors that a new policy manual is with the city government law commissioner for review.
However, jail inspection responses going back to 2023 show the jail has been working on a new manual, with legal reviewing the documents repeatedly since then.
In 2023, the jail said it was working on a new manual, which officials hoped to be completed by 2024.
A November 2024 letter from the jail to state authorities addressing a non-compliance finding said the jail was updating the document to submit to the council for approval “by the end of 2024.”
But 2025 came and went with both inspection responses from the jail saying they were working on a new manual to be presented in the “next few weeks,” and then in October 2025, it was sent to legal for review.
As of Aug. 6, the document was still being reviewed by the city’s legal team, according to documents received by the newspaper.
But an inmate civil rights attorney said the failure to have updated policies is much more serious than a paperwork error.
Greg Belzley, a longtime inmate civil rights attorney, said the situation was a classic example of someone “not doing their job,” but delegating it instead.
“How do you know they are breaking the rules if they don’t know the rules?” Belzley said. “It is a more general issue when there is a requirement like that and if you’ve got a fiscal court or a metro council that obeys the law, it sends a message to the jailer and other staff that there is someone looking over your shoulder.”
©2026 Lexington Herald-Leader. Visit kentucky.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
