# Kentucky

The Kentucky Department of Corrections (DOC) trains and certifies state correctional officers, probation and parole officers, and county jail staff, sets jail standards, and inspects every jail. Deputy jailers may also hold Kentucky Law Enforcement Council certification on their agency’s request. Since 2023 the State has let 18-year-olds work inside jails in limited roles, required unanimous Parole Board panels in 2024 and then relaxed that rule in 2026, added jail staff to peer support counseling programs, and made assault on jail health care workers third-degree assault. Most Kentucky acts take effect 90 days after the session ends; entries are dated by effective date.

Source: https://uscli.org/corrections-tracker/kentucky

## At a glance

- **Certifying body:** Split system. DOC’s Division of Corrections Training “shall establish, supervise, and coordinate training programs and schools for corrections personnel, jail personnel” and others, and “shall issue certification to those employees having successfully met the requirements” ([KRS 196.070(2)(a)](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=52916)). That covers state correctional officers, probation and parole officers, and county jail staff. The Kentucky Law Enforcement Council (KLEC) certifies peace officers; deputy jailers and employees of county or metro correctional services departments may be KLEC-certified on the employing agency’s request, and elected jailers are exempt but may request certification (KRS 15.380(4), (5)). KLEC is covered on the [Kentucky Officer Ledger page](https://uscli.org/officer-certification-tracker/kentucky).
- **Statute:** KRS chapter 196 (Department of Corrections; 196.037 gives DOC custody staff and probation and parole officers “all the authority and powers of peace officers”), chapter 197 (penitentiaries), chapter 439 (probation and parole), and chapter 441 (jails; standards 441.055, inspections 441.064, jail staff training 441.115). Rules: 501 KAR chapter 3 (jail standards), including 3:040 (personnel) and 3:160 (training).
- **Minimum standards:** Jail staff: since 2023 the jail standards must allow people 18 or older to work inside the secure perimeter. A person under 21 may not be a deputy jailer, exercise peace officer powers, act in a deputy-jailer-like role, or supervise prisoners or people awaiting booking, and must have a high school diploma or equivalency ([KRS 441.055](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=53747); [501 KAR 3:040](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/kar/titles/501/003/040/)). KLEC-certified deputy jailers must meet the peace officer minimums in KRS 15.382. Minimum hiring standards for DOC correctional officers were not verified.
- **Basic training:** Jail personnel: DOC must maintain a jail staff training program with basic and annual continuing education, including communicable-disease training, at no fee to jailers and deputies (KRS 441.115(1)). By rule, jail personnel must get medical awareness training within 30 days of hire, 4 hours of mental health training in the first year, and first aid and CPR within the first year; staff assigned to direct-supervision units need 40 hours of direct-supervision pre-service training ([501 KAR 3:160](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/kar/titles/501/003/160/), secs. 4 and 5). A newly elected jailer must complete a 40-hour new-jailer program to receive the $300 monthly training allowance (sec. 3). The hour length of DOC’s correctional officer academy was not verified.
- **In-service training:** “Jail personnel shall receive a minimum of twenty-four (24) hours annual in-service training,” including 1 hour of mental health training a year after the first year and communicable-disease training (501 KAR 3:160, sec. 4). Jailers need 40 hours a year of DOC-approved in-service to keep the training expense allowance (sec. 3; KRS 441.115(2)). DOC’s Division of Corrections Training must “design, develop, and deliver preservice and in-service training programs” for corrections personnel (KRS 196.070(2)(b)); no hour figure for DOC staff was verified.
- **Decertification:** KLEC revocation (KRS 15.391) applies to certified peace officers, including deputy jailers and county correctional services employees certified on their agency’s request; KLEC publishes no list of revoked officers ([Officer Ledger page](https://uscli.org/officer-certification-tracker/kentucky)). No statutory revocation process for DOC training certificates for correctional, probation and parole, or jail staff was found.
- **Jail standards:** DOC adopts the Jail Standards Commission’s recommendations as regulations setting minimum standards: full standards (health and safety, fire safety, operations, training curriculum, custody and care, medical care, construction) for counties that house state prisoners, and health and life-safety standards for counties that do not. The standards must be reviewed at least every two years (KRS 441.055). DOC “shall inspect each jail biannually and may inspect jails more frequently,” has access at any reasonable time, must give notice of health and safety deficiencies within 10 working days, and reports annually to the jailer and fiscal court ([KRS 441.064](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=44696)).
- **Probation and parole officers:** DOC employees. DOC exercises probation and parole functions under the commissioner (KRS 196.075). Officers acting in custody or supervision of probationers, parolees, and others under supervision “shall have all the authority and powers of peace officers” ([KRS 196.037(3)](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=44694)). Training and certification come from DOC’s Division of Corrections Training (196.070). KRS 196.076 provides a salary improvement program for probation and parole officers.
- **Restrictive housing:** A person in a jail, penitentiary, or other correctional or detention facility, residential center, or reentry center who is known to be pregnant, or in the six-week postpartum period (which a physician may extend for birth-related complications), “shall not be placed in restrictive housing, in administrative segregation, or in solitary confinement for medical observation”; a single cell or hospital room is still allowed ([KRS 196.174](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=51150)). DOC must file an annual restricted housing report by January 31 with each person’s age, gender, ethnicity, reason, and dates in and out, published on the Legislative Research Commission website (KRS 196.176). No general duration limit was found.
- **Corrections use of force:** Force by “a warden or other authorized official of a correctional institution” is justifiable when the official believes it necessary to enforce the institution’s lawful rules, the degree of force is not forbidden by statute, and any deadly force is otherwise justifiable under the code ([KRS 503.110(2)](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=19677)). A person known to be pregnant “shall be restrained solely with handcuffs in front of her body unless further restraint is required to protect herself or others.” Except in an extraordinary circumstance (an immediate, credible serious threat of harm or an escape risk that cannot otherwise be reduced), no restraint may be used during labor, during transport to a medical facility or freestanding birthing center for delivery, or during postpartum recovery (KRS 196.173).

## Changes, 2023 to 2026

- Jul 15, 2026 — **Jail staff added to peer support counseling; assault on jail health care workers is third-degree assault** — 2026 Ky. Acts ch. 28 (HB 188), amending KRS 65.1591 and 508.025 · Signed April 3, 2026; effective July 15, 2026 — The public safety employees eligible for confidential peer support counseling programs now include anyone who “Serves as a jailer, deputy jailer, or a correctional officer employed by a local detention center, local correctional facility, or regional jail.” Assault in the third degree, a felony, is expanded to physical injury caused or attempted against a health care provider in a jail, penitentiary, or other correctional or detention facility. — **For corrections staff:** Local jail staff can use an agency peer support counseling program, and attacks on jail medical staff are a felony assault. — [HB 188 bill record](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/26rs/hb188.html)[HB 188 enacted text](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/26RS/hb188/bill.pdf)[KRS 65.1591](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=57266)
- Apr 7, 2026 — **Parole Board panels no longer must be unanimous, except two-member panels** — 2026 Ky. Acts ch. 46 (HB 529), amending KRS 439.320 and 439.340 · Signed April 7, 2026; secs. 1 and 3, including KRS 439.320, effective on approval (emergency clause); the KRS 439.340 change effective July 15, 2026 (general effective date, computed) — Since 2024, parole and final parole revocation hearings could be held by panels of 3 to 6 members, and “All members of the panel shall agree on a decision.” HB 529 drops unanimity for larger panels: a three-member panel decides 2 to 1, and a panel of four or more decides by majority. If a two-member panel is used, “both members of the panel shall agree on a decision.” Board members again serve staggered 4-year terms instead of serving at the Governor’s pleasure, so that no more than three terms expire in a given year; for one term expiring in 2026, the successor serves two years. Parole review eligibility moves from people with more than 90 days to serve to people with 180 or more days to serve (KRS 439.340). — **For corrections staff:** Probation and parole officers presenting final revocation cases may appear before two-member panels that must agree, or larger panels that decide by majority. — [HB 529 bill record](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/26rs/hb529.html)[HB 529 enacted text](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/26RS/hb529/bill.pdf)
- Sep 3, 2024 — **Jail personnel regulation lowers the minimum age from 21 to 18** — 501 KAR 3:040 (Personnel), amended at 50 Ky.R. 1950 · Effective September 3, 2024 — The regulation implements the 2023 statute. The deleted sentence read “All persons who work inside the secure perimeter of the jail shall be at least twenty-one (21) years of age.” New Section 2 says “Persons who are at least eighteen (18) years old may be appointed or employed to work inside the secure perimeter of the jail.” Staff under 21 may not be deputy jailers, exercise peace officer powers, function like a deputy jailer or correctional officer, or supervise prisoners or people awaiting booking, and need a high school diploma or equivalency. — **For corrections staff:** Jails may hire 18- to 20-year-olds for limited, non-supervisory roles inside the secure perimeter. — [501 KAR 3:040](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/kar/titles/501/003/040/)
- Jul 15, 2024 — **Parole Board: unanimous panels, members serve at the Governor’s pleasure, violence-reduction conditions** — 2024 Ky. Acts ch. 174 (HB 5, “Safer Kentucky” act), secs. 29, 30, 42, and 46, amending KRS 439.320, 439.330, 439.340, and 196.031 · Vetoed April 9, 2024; veto overridden April 12, 2024; effective July 15, 2024 (general effective date, computed; the act has no emergency or delayed effective-date clause for these sections) — Before the act, a two-member Parole Board panel had to agree, a three-member panel decided 2 to 1, and a larger panel by majority. HB 5 required panels of 3 to 6 members and provided that “All members of the panel shall agree on a decision or the matter shall be referred to the full board.” Board members now serve at the pleasure of the Governor, for no more than four years without reappointment. As amended, KRS 439.330 grants parole on a two-thirds vote of the full board or by a panel, and KRS 439.340 lets a parole order require the person “to participate in a specific evidence-based program designed to reduce violence.” DOC’s annual report must add rates at which reentry program participants, and non-participants, are arrested, convicted, or returned to custody within three years of release. The act also revises the violent-offender definition in KRS 439.3401, which governs parole eligibility. The panel rule was relaxed in 2026 by HB 529. — **For corrections staff:** Parole officers may see violence-reduction programs added as a parole condition, and reentry program outcomes are now reported each year. — [HB 5 bill record](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/24rs/hb5.html)[2024 Ky. Acts ch. 174](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/acts/24RS/documents/0174.pdf)
- Jun 29, 2023 — **Jails may hire 18-year-olds inside the secure perimeter, with limits until age 21** — 2023 Ky. Acts ch. 44 (HB 164), amending KRS 441.055 · Signed March 21, 2023; effective June 29, 2023 — The jail standards DOC adopts must now allow people 18 or older who are otherwise qualified to work inside the secure perimeter of a jail, in counties that hold state prisoners and in those that do not. But “no person under the age of twenty-one (21) years shall be employed as a deputy jailer, possess or exercise peace officer powers, or function in a role similar to that of a deputy jailer,” or supervise inmates or persons yet to be booked. Staff under 21 must have a high school diploma or equivalency. — **For corrections staff:** Only staff 21 and over may serve as deputy jailers or supervise inmates. — [HB 164 bill record](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/23rs/hb164.html)[HB 164 enacted text](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/23RS/hb164/bill.pdf)

## Enacted, not yet in force, pending, and bills that did not pass

No enacted corrections law awaiting its effective date, and no pending corrections regulation, was found. Bills that did not pass were not separately listed.

## Checked and unchanged

- legislature.ky.gov (including its KRS effective-dates page) and corrections.ky.gov returned “The request is blocked.” Statutes, bill records, acts, and regulations here came from apps.legislature.ky.gov, the Legislative Research Commission’s official application host.
- Not credited: KRS 196.173 (pregnant restraint) was amended by 2025 Ky. Acts ch. 121, effective June 27, 2025; the prior text was not compared, so the exact change, which appears to add freestanding birthing centers, is not recorded as an entry.
- Not verified: the hour length and hiring standards for the DOC correctional officer and probation and parole academies.