Several inmates at the Barren County Jail have been without water since last weekend.

The jail says there's a good reason for the problem.

For the past couple of days, the jail has been undergoing construction to fix a problem that's caused major upheaval at the facility.

"He said the water had been turned off on Sunday and they didn't move him until Tuesday night," says Sandra Young, the mother of an inmate.

Young says her son, an inmate at the Barren County Jail told her in a phone call on Tuesday, his cell had become overrun with sewage having backed up over the past couple of days.

"He said that within those 2 days the toilet had been flushed twice and they were given bottled water and they hadn't had a bath," Young notes.

Barren County Sheriff's Deputy Matt Mutter explains the reason why inmates weren't moved immediately.

"We tried to fix the problem and weren't successful at first, so we called in another company. Once we saw the problem and realized how extensive it would be... a few days, that's when we went ahead and moved them," Mutter says.

Mutter also says the inmates did have access to water.

"We had portable showers brought in just in case of an emergency. We've also had portable toilets brought in as well," he explains.

The sewage became backed up after months of inmates flushing sheets down the pipes as well as built-up grease from the jail's kitchen.

In order to deal with the situation, many inmates were transported to cells that weren't affected by the sewage or shipped off to other counties.

With repair work on the pipes finishing, Mutter believes the situation is finally fixed.

"The water is back to the jail and as we speak now, the inmates are being transferred back to their cells where they were originally," Mutter says.

During the sewage problem, phone and visitation privileges were restricted.

Mutter explains starting Thursday, both privileges will return to normal.

This isn't the first time the Barren County Jail has had to deal with a sewage issue.

It had a similar one back in April of 2007.