by Douglas Ankney

When Kentucky prisoner Keith Bramblett complained about not receiving “good time credit” against his sentence for the class he took while incarcerated, an official with the state Department of Corrections (DOC) replied: “Sue me.” So Bramblett did. A dozen years later, the class-action has cost the state about $30 million to defend what one judge called a “severely mismanaged” program, which left thousands of prisoners like Bramblett confined months or years beyond their release dates.

In its most recent ruling on March 29, 2024, the federal court for the Eastern District of Kentucky likened the case to “an imposing kudzu vine that swiftly grew in its number of claims and its number of parties.” The Seventh Amended Class Action Complaint filed by Bramblett and fellow Plaintiffs—Brandon Biggs, Osiris Caise, James Coitrone, Quincy Dunn, Barbara Gordon, Lorenzo Lee, Tony Lutes, Lance Meacham, Walter A. Noland, Cedrick Lee Pollard, Donald Roberts and David Voyles—challenged the Commonwealth of Kentucky, its Justice and Public Safety Cabinet and DOC, on behalf of a certified class of prisoners allegedly denied sentence credits under KRS 197.045 “through completion of educational or behavioral modification programs” over the previous five years.

Plaintiffs Biggs, Caise, Hopper, Meacham, Gordon, Voyles and Roberts had been released from custody but argued their releases were delayed by the failure to award sentence credits. Remaining Plaintiffs were still incarcerated—17 years after passage of the relevant statute. That law says prisoners completing enumerated courses are entitled to educational good time (EGT) credit reductions from their sentences in amounts of 60 to 90 days per course completed. In turn, lawmakers hoped that EGT would save taxpayers money with a reduction in the population of prisoners and in the recidivism rate of those released.

The state Community and Technical College System (CTCS) operated DOC’s education programs until 2010; using a computerized system to monitor which prisoners completed which programs, it could quickly produce a transcript of every prisoner involved in classes. But when the DOC took over, the CTCS software was abandoned, and prison system employees attempted to keep records as best they could.

Worse, DOC apparently began treating EGT awards as discretionary. In Roberts v. Thompson, No. 2011-CA-1950-MR (Ky. App. Sept. 14, 2012) (unpublished), Plaintiff Donald Roberts—who is also a Plaintiff in the instant case—successfully argued pro se that KRS 197.045(1)(a)(2) afforded Defendants zero discretion in whether to award EGT. Even earlier, in Mercer v. Commonwealth, Kent. 48th Jud. Cir. (Franklin Cty.), Case No. 05-CI-01714 (2007), a state judge warned that denial of EGT could amount to a violation of due process guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, irrespective of whether the diploma Mercer earned was similar to another diploma for which he had already received EGT.

However, trial in this class-action was delayed because Defendants’ records, to put it mildly, were in disarray. The Court ordered an independent audit by private accounting giant KPMG. After more than 150 visits to Kentucky jails and prisons over 30 months, auditors found over 3,600 prisoners who were improperly denied EGT. Of those, more than 2,000 were released late—by an average of 90 days. Some even died while wrongfully imprisoned. KPMG found approximately 1,500 prisoners remained in custody even after receiving their EGT—meaning they should be released immediately. Around 6,000 more prisoners may have been wrongfully denied EGT, auditors added, but those cases were disputed by Defendants. Still an estimated 3,000 more late releases would probably result.

The audit cost the state $28 million. Shockingly, DOC did not even attempt to fix the problem until it was completed. Even after the class-action was filed, putting DOC on notice of the problem, it only worsened: 78% of the errors that auditors found occurred after the suit was filed, including 40% after the audit began.

Defendants removed the case to the Court, arguing they were entitled to qualified immunity. The Court agreed and granted them summary judgment on claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 on March 30, 2022, pruning the case to two pendant state-law claims. See: Bramblett v. Commonwealth, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58224 (E.D. Ky.). In its most recent decision, the Court punted those claims to the Franklin County Circuit Court, which originally certified the class. See: Bramblett v. Kentucky, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57702 (E.D. Ky.).

“How much would I have to pay you to spend 24 hours in a Kentucky prison?” wondered Plaintiffs’ counsel, Prospect attorney Greg Belzley. “We’re not just talking about these prisoners. We’re talking about their families. We’re talking about kids going 90 days without their dad or mom when they should have been home.”

It remains to be seen what relief the current and former prisoners will get. But as Belzley noted, it’s already clear that Kentucky taxpayers are big losers from DOC’s “sue me” attitude. “This is very possibly going to be the largest, one of the costliest lawsuits that’s going to be brought against this state,” the attorney said.  

Additional source: WDRB