‘The failure of leadership is obvious.’ Lexington jail employees take no confidence vote
The executive board of the union that represents Fayette County Detention Center employees voted no confidence in Fayette County Detention Center Director Lisa Farmer and Lexington Public Safety Commissioner Ken Armstrong due to chronic under-staffing at the Old Frankfort Pike facility.
A no confidence vote means “that the men and women who faithfully serve at FCDC and risk their lives every day to keep us safe do not believe that Commissioner Armstrong or Director Farmer are competent to lead FCDC,’’ said Michael Harris, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Town Branch Lodge 83, which represents most correction officers.
The detention center is more than 100 officers short, leading to multiple mandatory overtime shifts, detention center employees said. Many people are working 60 hours a week, the union claims. If they don’t work the mandatory overtime, Farmer and top administrators threaten rank-and-file officers with termination, union officials said.
“We have multiple officers facing termination today because Director Farmer is trying to force exhausted officers to work multiple overtime shifts, consisting of 16 hours workdays. Many officers live more than an hour away from FCDC. They drive home, eat dinner, shower, get a few hours of sleep, and drive back to the facility for another 16-hour day,” said Harris.
A survey of union membership shows more than half of the current staff has looked for other jobs.
“Officers of all ages and at all stages of their career are leaving FCDC because of constant harassment, retaliation, and mistreatment by Director Farmer or through her management directives,’’ Harris said. “The culture has deteriorated at the jail to the point where nearly everyone is looking for an opportunity to exit and find a new employer.”
Armstrong was appointed public safety commissioner under former Mayor Jim Gray in 2018. Armstrong oversees police, fire, 911, corrections and other public safety departments. The union alleges Armstrong has done little to correct staffing issues at the detention center.
“We are missing nearly 120 corrections officers needed to safely operate this facility. FCDC has entire housing units holding over 80 inmates without a sworn officer in the tower. FCDC is now leaving doors in secured areas open — doors which are supposed to be locked. Management’s dangerous approach, supported by Commissioner Armstrong, is only going to lead to more assaults against officers and deaths among inmates,” said Steve Parker, the vice president of the union.
Upping recruitment, looking at options
The city and Farmer have tried to up recruitment efforts to help bring more staff to the jail. Since it ratified a new contract in February — which included substantial pay increases for staff — the city has been able to hire 17 staff, said Susan Straub, a spokeswoman for the city.
It currently has 207 staff and 116 vacancies. But it’s also down to 957 inmates. At its highest, the jail sometimes had 1,500 inmates.
Nearly every detention center, jail and state prison is also facing critical staffing shortages, said Tyler Scott, chief of staff for Mayor Linda Gorton, at a recent council meeting.
Scott told the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council during an April 26 council work session that the city has asked Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration about utilizing the National Guard. However, state officials say they have looked at the legal guidelines and don’t think the guard can be called into jails or state prisons, which are also severely understaffed.
“There are serious restrictions driven by state statutes that prevent non-sworn officers from serving in roles having direct contact with inmates,” said Straub. “If members of the National Guard were to be mobilized for this purpose, they would have to undergo significant training to serve in this role and would still have a very short mobilization period to actually help. The state considered this option and decided against it. It has too many logistical and training issues, and would only provide help for a very limited amount of time.”
The city has also contracted with the National Institute of Corrections to do a study on the jail. That study may allow the jail to move away from direct supervision, which means fewer staff would be needed to run the detention center, Farmer has previously said.
That study has been delayed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic. Institute staff are hoping to visit Lexington this summer, jail officials have previously said.
This is the second time the union board has taken a no confidence vote in leadership. The first was in 2019 against then-director Steve Haney. Haney remained in the position until 2020. Farmer, who has worked at the detention center since 2001 and is its first female director, was named director in October 2020.
Union officials said the jail is losing too many staff and the city needs to do more. The union wants the council to hold hearings on conditions at the jail and determine next steps to address staffing concerns. The council has discussed the issues at the jail in multiple council meetings.
“Four FCDC bureau majors, with decades of experience, left employment within the past year,” Harris said. “These respected leaders left FCDC not because they were ready to leave but because they did not agree with direction of the jail under Commissioner Armstrong and Director Farmer. Their reasons are consistent with the feelings of front-line staff. The failure of leadership is obvious.”
Harris said new recruits with limited training have been left to staff housing units alone. That’s dangerous, he said.
“Coming off of a city council debate where it was represented that National Guard soldiers were incapable of assisting at the facility because they lacked proper training, Director Farmer’s decision to place new recruits alone in housing units, without critical training and experience handling violent encounters, failed every safety standard,” he said.
Gorton’s transition team, which was appointed before she took office in 2019, found problems at the jail that needed to be addressed, the union said. Yet, it took Gorton’s administration years to deal with issues at the jail, union officials said.
Over the past 12 months, four people have died at the detention center.
Nyla Smith, the mother of Michelle Robinson, 42, told the Lexington council during a Thursday meeting that her daughter killed herself at the jail earlier this year. Smith said when she called the jail to figure out what happened to Robinson, jail staff gave her a phone number but never told her that number was for the Fayette County coroner or that Robinson had died.
“It can’t bring her back,” Smith said through tears. “But it might save someone else’s life.”
Morale low, overtime high
A survey of approximately 100 Fayette County Detention staffers showed staff morale was low, overtime was problematic and many jail staff had little confidence in Farmer to fix problems at the detention center.
The survey found:
- 76% rated morale as poor.
- 31% worked more than 36 hours of overtime in a two-week pay period.
- 23% worked between 24 and 36 hours of overtime in a two-week pay period.
- 62% said the work environment and culture was poor.
- 30% said they were very likely to leave in the next 12-24 months.
- 14% said they were likely to leave in the next 12- 14 months.
- 32% said excessive overtime was the reason they were thinking of leaving.
- 38% rated Farmer and senior staffs’ work performance as poor.
- 81% said Farmer has never addressed their shift about staffing concerns such as overtime.
- 38% said working conditions have declined since Farmer took over the jail.
This story was originally published May 2, 2022 at 2:06 PM.
