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.
Campbell County gets $88 per day per inmate. The jail currently holds 57 federal prisoners, according to weekly reports from the Department of Corrections. And across the state, these federal prisoners have expanded county jails’ total budget exponentially. Many county jails now operate on a private prison model — relying on the profit made from federal prisoners to offset costs.
“That's why we hold federal inmates,” Daley said. “It’s to try [be] very cognizant of spending local taxpayer dollars. So if I can offset those, that's very important to me.”
And the role of the jailer is still a cornerstone to Kentucky politics. It is the only state in the county where jailers are elected into office. Former Department of Corrections Parole and probation officer Kyle Ellison said for some, being a jailer is a stepping stone into a larger office.
“There's a very close relationship between the jailers and the state legislators,” Ellison said. “People might think about a jailer as an audition for somebody who might be able to run for higher office.”
Most notably, former state Senator John Schickel started his career as Boone County Jailer. He then ran and was elected to represent the 11th District in 2009. Schickel retired from office in 2024, but is now running again for Boone County Commissioner.
The position of jailer is on the ballot in Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties this year, but in each, candidates are running unopposed. Daley plans to retire at the end of his term.
Jailers and immigration detention
Many county jails in Kentucky have a 287(g) agreement with the Department of Homeland Security — meaning those jails can hold federal prisoners for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Kenton County has this type of contract, and Boone and Campbell counties have separate agreements to house immigrants for DHS.
In July, there were 135 immigrants in detention in Campbell County, 221 in Boone County and 151 in Kenton County. More recent data is not available.
Daley said regarding immigrants, his only job is to hold them as long as the Department of Homeland Security says so.
“On the federal level, I get paid to hold them,” he said. “I, other than internally, don't get paid to manage them, so where they go to, where they come from, is above my pay grade.”
Prolonged detention rose across the board nationally after President Donald Trump’s administration changed the rules on who could be released while awaiting a trial on their immigration case. This has forced people in immigration detention in Kentucky to be kept in jails designed for short-term holding.
Even so, jailers are not required to publish a roster of immigrants in detention, just report numbers to DHS. Ellison believes this is something voters can ask elected jailers to change.
“Who's going to make [jailers] report the correct numbers?” he asked. “Who's going to enforce that? That would be a question, particularly for people around Campbell County, to ask ‘what is your position on listing the names of immigrant people that are in your jail?’”
Daley said he does not support changing the policy anytime soon. He said even though names are not posted publicly, immigrants transferred to the jail are not cut off from all communication.
“As soon as they get there, they have access to telephones,” Daley said. “They have access to video visitation. So if their family doesn't know where they're at, that's not on the jail, that's on them.”
In July, three U.S. representatives visited the Campbell County Detention Center. They reported cost cutting practices leading to inhumane conditions, such as overcrowding, poor access to medical treatment and no specialized diet for people with medical conditions like diabetes.
That day, Daley said the claims were false but did not elaborate. In October, he said the representatives had an agenda.
But while Campbell County is not currently over capacity, the same isn’t true in Kenton and Boone counties: Kenton is 87 inmates over and Boone is 24 inmates over, according to weekly data from the Department of Corrections. Other Kentucky county jails, like in Grayson and Jefferson counties, are around 150 inmates over capacity.
Ellison said this is not unusual. During his time with the Department of Corrections, inspectors could flag overcrowding, but the state doesn’t have the capacity to do much about it.
“The question is: what happens then?” he asked. “And what happens then is basically nothing, because the state prisons don't have the room to put those people should they enforce the law.”
Still, Daley believes in Kentucky's county jail system and a jailer’s ability to intake federal inmates. He believes his successor, who worked for Daley and is running uncontested, will continue to expand the jail’s programs and budget.
“I think he'll do a fine job,” he said.
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