Federal officials say the Justice Department has opened an investigation into conditions at the Boyd County Detention Center in Catlettsburg.
In a news release Tuesday, the Justice Department says the investigation will focus on whether prisoners are adequately protected from the use of excessive force, whether prisoners are subject to an invasion of their "bodily privacy" and whether the jail indiscriminately uses restrictive housing without due process.
Officials say the investigation will be conducted under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act.
Under the act, the Justice Department has authority to investigate violations of prisoners' constitutional rights that result from a "pattern or practice of resistance to the full enjoyment of such rights."