{"data":{"id":"us-ky/krs-197.047","jurisdiction":"us-ky","citation":"KRS 197.047","heading":"Credit on sentence for work on governmental services program -related","body":"project -- Eligibility -- Computation of credit -- Forfeiture of credit.\n(1) (a) As used in this section, \"governmental services program -related project\"\nmeans a project involving work for:\n1. The Commonwealth or an agency of the Commonwealth; or\n2. A county, urban -county, charter county, city, consolidated local\ngovernment, special district, or an agency of any of these entities.\n(b) Work on a governmental services program shall not confer private benefit on\na person except as may be incidental to the public benefit.\n(2) The department shall promulgate an administrative regulation governing prisoners\nworking on governmental services program-related projects.\n(3) A prisoner shall not b egin work on a particular governmental services program -\nrelated project without the approval of the director of the relevant entity referred to\nin subsection (1)(a) of this section, or the director's designee.\n(4) Participation in governmental services program-related projects shall not be deemed\nemployment for any purpose, and a prisoner shall not be deemed an employee or\nagent of the entity for which he or she performs the community service work.\n(5) A Department of Corrections administrative regulation s hall set forth the amount of\ncompensation a prisoner shall earn for any work -related project, and any prisoner\nwho works on a governmental services program shall receive an amount equal to\none-half (1/2) of the established compensation for such work and shall be eligible to\nreceive a sentence credit as set forth below.\n(6) The sentence credit provisions of this section shall not apply to a prisoner who is\nserving a:\n(a) Sentence of imprisonment for life without possibility of parole;\n(b) Sentence for a violent offense as defined in KRS 439.3401;\n(c) Sentence for escape or attempted escape; or\n(d) Sentence for a sex crime as defined in KRS 17.500.\n(7) The department may grant sentence credits to inmates confined in a detention\nfacility for labor performed in a governmental services program or within a\ndetention facility for the maintenance of the facility or for the operation of facility\nservices such as food service.\n(8) Credit, if granted, shall be uniform and shall be based on the following:\n(a) For every eight (8) full hours of work, one (1) sentence credit shall be earned;\n(b) For every five (5) sentence credits earned, one (1) day of the sentence t o be\nserved by the inmate shall be deducted; and\n(c) Sentence credits shall be deducted from the maximum expiration date of the\nsentence.\n(9) The department may forfeit any credit previously earned by the prisoner or deny the\nprisoner the right to earn thi s work credit or the right to earn work credit in any\namount if, during the term of imprisonment, a prisoner commits any offense or\nviolates the rules of the institution.\n(10) Any other provision of law to the contrary notwithstanding, the labor of state\ninmates shall not be used on any construction, building, or building maintenance\nproject outside the prison where use of such labor would reduce skilled employment\nopportunities of citizens of the Commonwealth. Skilled employment includes but is\nnot limited to labor ordinarily performed by skilled tradespersons.","path":["KRS Chapter 197"],"source_url":"https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=6868","current_through":"Includes enactments through the 2026 Regular Session","vintage":"09/05/2026","retrieved_at":"2026-09-05T20:51:49Z","sha256":"7a109b1eb835c4a36d1ed23a6b0f9470244f031ecb1d913a17797a4be5349f03","source_id":"us-ky","stale":false,"prev":"us-ky/krs-197.045","next":"us-ky/krs-197.050"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}