There are currently 77 county jails in Kentucky: 70 full service, four regional and three life safety. Kentucky law requires counties to provide for the incarceration of inmates arrested in the county by maintaining a jail or contracting with another county (KRS 441.025). Even when a county jail is closed, the fiscal court remains responsible for providing for the incarceration of inmates arrested in the county.
For more information on jail classifications, click here.
Full service and regional jails report their jail populations to the Kentucky Department of Corrections (DOC) weekly. These reports can be found here.
- Note: the three life safety jails are not included in these reports or the statistics below.
Overview – FY2026
From July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026, the average weekly jail population was 20,354 inmates. County jails house inmates under different jurisdictions, including county, state and federal custody.
County inmates
All Kentucky jails house county inmates which include individuals who have been newly arrested, are awaiting trial (including felonies) and are serving sentences for misdemeanor offenses. Counties are fully responsible for the cost to incarcerate those defined as county inmates.
An average of 10,490 county inmates were housed in Kentucky jails each week during FY2026, accounting for 51.5% of the state's total county jail population. Many county inmates are pretrial felony detainees who may become state inmates if they are convicted and sentenced on a felony offense.
State inmates
KRS 532.100 requires most Class D felony inmates and some Class C felony inmates to serve their sentences in county jails. State inmates housed in county jails also include inmates awaiting classification by DOC, parole violators and participants in alternative sentencing programs.
Only full service and regional jails can house state inmates. Counties receive a $35.34 per diem reimbursement from the state for these inmates beginning on the day of sentencing.
State inmates accounted for an average of 34.9% of the county jail population in FY2026, or 7,098 inmates.
Federal inmates
Some county jails also house federal inmates through contracts with federal agencies. Counties receive reimbursement based on the rates negotiated in those contracts.
In FY2026, 22 counties housed federal inmates, with average populations ranging from five to 563 inmates. Federal inmates accounted for an average of 13.6% of the county jail population statewide.
Trends
Kentucky county jails housed an average of 958 more inmates in FY2026 than in FY2025, a 4.9% increase in the overall jail population. The largest contributor to the increase was the federal inmate population, which grew by 689 inmates compared with FY2025.
The state inmate population declined during the second half of FY2026. However, the average state inmate population for the full fiscal year remained relatively stable compared with FY2025. The state inmate population has generally trended downward since 2023.
The county inmate population has remained relatively stable since rebounding following the COVID-19 pandemic.
