Mayor names longtime detention center staffer, 1st woman as new Fayette jail director
Mayor Linda Gorton has named a nearly 20-year Fayette County Detention Center employee as its new director.
Maj. Lisa Farmer, who began working at the detention center in 2001, will be the first woman to oversee the more than 1,000-bed detention center. She is the first woman in the state to earn a certified jail manager certificate.
“I want to thank Mayor Gorton and Commissioner Ken Armstrong for their confidence in my ability to be Director of Community Corrections,” Farmer said. “I look forward to the next step of my career within Community Corrections. I’m very excited for the future for Community Corrections and the challenges that come with the position.”
Armstrong is the commissioner of public safety.
Farmer replaces Steve Haney, who announced earlier this year that he was retiring. The city received 26 applications from across the country for the open position.
Gorton said Farmer had an “outstanding record” with a lot of experience.
“She is well prepared to lead our detention center,” Gorton said. “Corrections is an essential part of our community’s public safety. Our corrections officers do an outstanding job, and Lisa will strengthen that tradition of professionalism.”
Farmer started as an officer and has worked her way up through the chain of command. She is currently the major in charge of operations.
She has a bachelor’s degree in corrections and juvenile services and a master’s degree in criminal justice from Eastern Kentucky University.
She will immediately assume duties as interim director. If confirmed by the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council, she will officially start as director on Nov. 23. She will make $114,000 in the new position, city officials said.
Haney’s four-year tenure at the detention center included some controversy. The executive board of the Fraternal Order of Police Town Branch Lodge Number 83, which represents jail employees, issued a unanimous ‘no confidence’ vote in Haney and assistant director Harold Byrne at a meeting on Sept. 12, 2019. That no-confidence vote came after a mass exodus of staff and claims of excessive overtime due to lack of employees. The jail has long struggled to retain employees.
This story was originally published October 26, 2020 at 2:52 PM.
