After serving two terms as Kentucky Treasurer, where she oversaw the disbursement of public funds, Allison Ball has settled into her new job of Auditor of Public Accounts, where she ensures that state tax dollars have been properly spent by government agencies, local elected officials, school districts, and others. The Republican says her new role is a tremendous job for someone who believes in fiscal responsibility.
“I really do have an accountability mentality to things that I work on,” says Ball. “So it’s not just about good stewardship. It’s also making sure people are doing things right, and those two things go hand-in-hand in the auditor’s office.”
Audit of Juvenile Justice System Reveals Serious Issues
The office is responsible for some 600 audits each year, according to Ball. Most of those are routine, annual reviews that are conducted or managed by the auditor’s staff. But the office also does special audits that often require outside expertise to examine complex issues, such as the recently released report on the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice. That audit, which started under previous Auditor Mike Harmon, substantiated reports in the media in recent years of persistent problems within the agency and at the state’s juvenile detention centers.
For example, Ball says investigators found punitive use of isolation, which she says should only be used for safety purposes. In some instances, Ball says female inmates were stripped by male guards and placed in isolation cells.
The review also found an excessive and abusive use of pepper spray against inmates. Ball says detention officers had used 73 times the amount of spray on young inmates than is normally used on adult offenders at federal prisons. She says state statute does allow the use of pepper spray, but rules say the compound should be employed sparingly and only by certain personnel.
“You have to have good policy, you have to have good guardrails in place if you’re going to use something like that,” she says. “You can’t do it in a way that is abusive and harmful.”
The audit included a range of recommendations for DJJ, including increased staffing and better training for detention center personnel.
“A lot of these people that work there are just in survivor mode,” Ball says. “They really don’t have the capacity to do a lot more, they’re just trying to get by day to day.”
The report also recommended better guidelines to prevent excessive use of force and isolation as well as improved educational services for inmates. Ball says the state is required to provide academic instruction to youth, not just warehouse them.
“You’re not tucking them away somewhere,” she says. “You are still trying to train them and prepare them to be responsible adults when they get out.”
“Many of them have committed crimes and that has to be addressed, but many of them really need assistance,” she adds. “They need help in this point in their lives.”
Future Audits from Ball’s Office
Ball says she has a heart for all children across the commonwealth. In addition to being a former bankruptcy attorney, the eastern Kentuckian served four years as assistant Floyd County Attorney, where she prosecuted child dependency, abuse, and neglect cases. She is also the first Kentucky constitutional officer in history to give birth while in office.
That focus on youth is also behind her push for a special audit of Jefferson County Public Schools, the state’s largest school system. Ball says it’s been almost a decade since JCPS has had a thorough review, and what they learn from the audit can be informative for other districts around the state. She says the analysis will require the assistance of an independent, third-party auditing firm to conduct the review. Instead of requiring JCPS to pay for the audit, Ball has requested $1.5 million from the General Assembly to fund the review.
“I really did not want to put that burden of that on the school system,” she says. “I want to make sure this is done right and well.”
Audits don’t always reveal criminal activity or willful misconduct. Ball says sometimes they simply uncover an ignorance of good fiscal controls. Beyond the routine audits and the special review of JCPS, Ball says she wants to hear from Kentuckians with concerns about potential misuses of public funds. She says anyone can request an investigation by the auditor’s office.
“You want an open door so you can hear what’s going on,” says Ball. “But you also don’t want to go after people when they don’t deserve it, so you need to have a little bit of healthy skepticism when people tell you things.”
