A lightning rod for controversy and the subject of investigations, the Barren County Corrections Center ended the fiscal year last month with a surplus, the first time in years the jail finished in the black.

At the end of the last fiscal year on June 30, the jail had $277,912 in its budget, which has been carried over into the current operating budget.

“I don’t know if we’ve been that much in the black since I’ve been in office,” Barren County Judge-Executive Davie Greer said.

The county has operated the jail for its first full year in the new facility on Samson Street, which opened in May 2011, resulting in a sharp reduction in maintenance costs and an increased capacity for inmates, including state inmates, for whom the county is paid to house.

Barren County Jailer Matt Mutter said there have been minimal maintenance costs at the new building, which was constructed after a wing at the former jail facility was closed following a state inspection.

“We don’t really have any repairs right now like we have at the old facility,” Mutter said. “We’re basically running on less staff now than we were at the old facility.”

The jail is also larger than the previous building and has been housing an estimated average of 190 inmates a day, of whom about 140 are state inmates. The county is paid $31 a day to house state inmates.

“I think the Department of Corrections, they’re not showing us any favoritism, but I think their opinion is we’re doing a good job, and they’re sending (state inmates) our way,” Mutter said.

For the current fiscal year, the jail is operating on a budget of $2,066,060, which does not include a $499,300 bond payment to service the debt on construction of the facility.

The only significant cost increase associated with the new jail so far has been greater utility bills, which Mutter chalks up to being in a building more than twice the size of the former jail.

The jail has been the subject of scrutiny by county officials, who have followed up on allegations of inappropriate behavior by employees there.

A private investigator hired by Barren County Fiscal Court interviewed current and former employees earlier this year and has turned his findings over to the FBI, and two female deputy jailers have filed a civil suit in Barren Circuit Court alleging that they were the targets of gender discrimination by their colleagues. There have been no criminal allegations filed against Mutter or anyone working at the jail as a result of the private investigation.

Mutter’s supporters on the fiscal court maintain that his financial management of the jail makes him fit to remain the county jailer. Mutter is an elected official just like the members of the fiscal court. He does not answer to the fiscal court.