By Representative Brent Yonts, Vice Chair, House
Judiciary, Chair House State Government Committee
Government is responsible for keeping us safe. Our city,
county and state governments continue to do a very good job of keeping us safe.
Our crime rate is lower than the nation’s crime rate and it is declining.
However, the cost of incarceration is high in Kentucky
and we are wasting taxpayer money in incarcerating low-risk inmates for longer
than is necessary. Jails remain the
highest cost for most every county. The cost of state prisons is nearly a half
billion dollars. It is just common sense that the more money government spends
on incarceration, the fewer funds there are for important other community and
state needs.
While the increase in our incarceration costs has
lessened due to the significant criminal reform in 2011, the projected savings
have not been fully achieved and Kentucky has spent over $61 million in
unbudgeted funds for a prison population that was higher than forecasted. More money will have to be spent unless the
General Assembly does something in 2015. State prison costs continue to
increase and remain the most significant share of the Kentucky criminal justice
system, taking 36% of the total system funding.
With our worsening fiscal outlook in the coming years,
many have commented on the need for the General Assembly to make additional
modest adjustments in 2015 that will reduce county and state incarceration
costs to address full implementation of the 2011 reform.
There are a variety of ideas that will accomplish the
objective of smartly reducing costs in a way that ensures safety. Most of the
ideas include modestly reducing the discretion of the parole board, judges, and
prosecutors to increase the safe release of persons who have been evaluated by
evidence-based, validated risk assessments as having a low risk of reoffending,
while still holding these offenders accountable for their criminal behavior
through sanctions and supervision.
In addition to the high financial cost of unnecessary
incarceration, many people who are jailed face unintended negative
consequences. For instance, there is substantial Kentucky data indicating
that keeping low-risk offenders in jail for just a few days is correlated with
future criminal activity. In other
words, in some circumstances, keeping a low-risk person in jail when they could
be released actually decreases future public safety.
Fortunately for taxpayers,
there are a growing number of leaders nationally and in Kentucky calling for
smart reduction of correctional costs. For instance, the Kentucky Chamber of
Commerce’s report, The Leaky Bucket: 5 Years Later (July 2014) calls on
Kentucky legislators to pass more legislation to reduce correction costs.
I have been working with a coalition of county and state groups
to identify safe ways to reduce our costs. After listening to these
professionals, I filed a series of bills to:
1.
HB 305
- Reduce low level misdemeanors to violations with pre-payable fines, saving
jail, prosecution, and defense expenses;
2. HB 286 -Permit local jailers to grant limited
service credits against an inmate's sentence for good behavior and educational
achievement, saving jail costs and encouraging good behavior, and also mandate alternative
sentencing for flagrant non-support instead of imprisonment, saving prison
costs and better enabling delinquent parents to work to support their children;
3.
HB 285
- Require parole after a fixed period for nonviolent offenders serving a Class
D sentence and release for misdemeanants who have good behavior, saving county
and state incarceration costs;
4.
HB 284 -Adopt
of a “clear and convincing” standard for pretrial release decisions and
findings specific to the defendant, guaranteeing that defendants who are
low-risk and entitled to release are not needlessly held in jail at county
expense; and
5.
HB 304
- Modify the persistent felony offender statute, saving prison costs by
reserving the highest sentences for violent offenders and career criminals.
The KY Chamber’s call for reducing correction costs has
been joined by Jim Waters, President of the Bluegrass Institute. The 5 bills
that I have filed in 2015 will save real dollars for counties and the state.
These bills build on the 2011 bipartisan support with additional improvements
to be good stewards of taxpayers’ dollars.
Our jails have many low and moderate risk detainees being
unnecessarily housed at county expense. While our crime rates decline, our
correctional costs are unnecessarily increasing. Increased funding for rising correctional
costs dries up funds for important local and state needs. With passage of these
bills, we will safely reduce county and state incarceration costs in 2015. That
is what taxpayers expect of us.
