BOYD COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18)– The United States Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced that an investigation into the conditions at the Boyd County Detention Center resulted in them determining that there is reasonable cause to believe the conditions there violate the fourth, eighth, and fourteenth amendments of the US Constitution.
The investigation was initiated in November 2016 under CRIPA, which is the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act.
The Department concluded that there is reasonable cause to believe that Boyd County “routinely subjects prisoners to excessive force through the use of chemical agents, electronic control devices, and restraint chairs.”
“The Constitution guarantees all prisoners the reasonable expectation of personal privacy and the right to be free from excessive use of force,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband of the Civil Rights Division. “Our investigation found reasonable cause to believe that the Jail inflicts punishment without justification and fails to protect its prisoners’ reasonable expectations of privacy. The Justice Department hopes to continue to work with the Jail to resolve the Department’s concerns.”
You can read the letter to the Boyd County Judge-Executive Eric Chaney here.
