In Campbell County, Jim Daley runs the county jail. He oversees state and federal inmates and daily operations; while managing a budget of about $17 million this year. But he says his role is more of a figurehead.
“I’ll say this tongue in cheek, it’s really unique in the sense that I’m in charge of the jail, but I have control over nothing,” he said.
Figurehead or not, the position has been in the news this year. Kentucky county jails have been getting paid to hold federal prisoners at a daily rate since the 1980s. Recently, many of those federal prisoners have been people arrested on immigration violations under the Trump administration’s increased enforcement…