Thanks to Stu Johnson, Kentucky Public Radio/WEKU, RichmondTwo of the damaged dormitories at the Northpoint Training Center could be operational by the end of this week. That’s the assessment of Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown. The medium security prison in Boyle County was the site of inmate unrest last Friday that resulted in minor injuries to 16 people and extensive fire damage.Still, Brown says it could be months before the Northpoint facility returns to normal operations. 700 inmates have since been transferred to other prisons. Brown says officials are reviewing security tapes and talking to inmates about what triggered the unrest."We think the inmates themselves will give us a lot of information and then we’ll just have to put it all together. In that situation in the dark in a fire at some point it would be hard to tell who was doing the good stuff and who was doing the bad stuff," Brown said Monday.Brown says it’s possible all six buildings damaged by fire could be demolished and rebuilt. He says inmates did have access to matches as smoking was allowed in parts of the prison.
Rick Howlett was midday host and the host of LPM's weekly talk show, "In Conversation." He was with LPM from 2001-2023 and held many different titles, including Morning Edition host, Assignment Editor and Interim News Director. He died in August 2023. Read a remembrance of Rick here.