Leslie Young of Lexington is suing the state claiming prison wardens around Kentucky have barred her from visiting her husband, 39 year old Gerald Young, but won't give a valid reason why her access was cut off on December 1, 2010. The couple, who married at Western Kentucky Correctional Center on March 2, 2009, last visited at Northpoint Training Center in Burgin on November 29, 2010. The Youngs allege Gerald Young was placed in segregation while officials investigated a complaint he made against a Northpoint guard. Steve Haney, the warden at Northpoint, sent Leslie Young a letter two days later informing her of the permanent ban from all Kentucky prisons until further notice. Gerald Young is serving life in prison for complicity to commit murder in June 1997. He was originally sentenced to death for hiring a hit-man to kill Osama Salash in Lexington as part of a drug dispute. The Kentucky Supreme Court in 2001 overturned the death sentence, finding no aggravating circumstances to warrant capital punishment. Gerald Young has been transferred to Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex in West Liberty.
