Christian County Jail Overcrowding Lingers After Voters Reject Tax

On Tuesday, residents of Christian County voted to extend a sales tax for the local sheriff's office past its 2015 sunset. However, they voted by about the same margin against an 1/4-cent increase in sales tax to expand the justice center.

Read More: Christian County Voters Approve Existing Tax, Reject New One

Sheriff Joey Kyle says he is appreciative for what voters passed. He says that gives the county more time to figure out how to handle the packed jail in a growing county.

Sheriff Kyle says if voters would had said "no" to the tax extension issue, he could have lost about half of the office's budget.

Kyle says the jail has more than 130 inmates at times; it's built for 96. The new tax would have helped the jail expand to hold about 225 people, along with other improvements to the justice center.

John Jeffrey, who lives in Christian County and voted in the election, doesn't want more of his money going to expand to the jail.

Jeffrey is representative of the mood in the county. Like the poll results, he said "yes" to extending the law enforcement tax beyond its original sunset. Still, he said "no" to the additional 1/4-sales tax.

County leaders are not ruling out putting a tax on the ballot again.

"They don't want any more taxes," says Sheriff Kyle. "I think that's the prevailing feature or reason [the tax increase failed at the polls]. I think secondly, we didn't educate [the voters] well enough."

Presiding Commissioner Lou Lapaglia says the county will be exploring other ways to get money to the justice system in Christian County. He says part of at least the discussion, will be the possibility of charging the neighboring towns that bring inmates to the jail.

"We're going to look at everything," said Lapaglia. "It's all on the table. In the next couple of months we'll come to a decision."