Great U.S. criminal justice system should work for all - by Public Advocate Ed Monahan

In today's Lexington Herald-Leader

Great U.S. criminal justice system should work for all

Americans enjoy the greatest criminal justice system ever known to civilization. Every person is entitled to a lawyer if facing incarceration, accorded due process when liberty is at risk, and assured freedom from unwarranted searches and seizures — to name just a few of the individual liberties we enjoy in our democracy. 

....

d more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/07/26/3959643/great-us-criminal-justice-system.html#storylink=cpy

However, this sort of injustice is not limited to Ferguson. These are some of the cases that happened in Kentucky:
■ A poor elderly man whose fourth-degree assault was diverted but whose court costs were not waived by the court, and so he was left to ask churches for help putting food on his table.
■ A DUI defendant unable to pay $1,008 costs and fees was required to serve 20 days. Defendants not released from jail until payment of a $40 arrest fee assessed by the sheriff.
■ Poor people given "pay or stay" warrants and then jailed for failure to pay a fine without any representation by a lawyer.
■ Defendants who fail to ask for more time to pay fines/fees and are jailed for 180 days, or can't pay for their $35/day home-incarceration bracelets and are returned to jail.
■ Probation has been revoked because defendants are unable to get transportation to their drug tests or are unable to pay for them.
■ Diversion programs which carry fees of $400.
■ Courts refused to waive costs for clients with long prison sentences.

....

Our great criminal justice system is not faultless. Like Ferguson, Kentucky has unjust practices that must be remedied now for the words of our pledge of allegiance "with liberty and justice for all" to have full meaning.

Read the entire article here 

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/07/26/3959643/great-us-criminal-justice-system.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/07/26/3959643/great-us-criminal-justice-system.html#storylink=cpy

 

Expunging records of non-violent felons could address workforce issues, according to Ky. Public Advocate - Kentucky Chamber

Interest in legislation to expunge the records of non-violent Class D felons is growing as more states are passing similar bills and companies, such as Wal-Mart, Target and Koch Industries, are beginning to “ban the box” on employment forms.

In Kentucky, the implementation of legislation to give individuals with certain low-level offenses the right to remove the incident from their record would have a significant economic impact, according to Kentucky Public Advocate Ed Monahan. 

“Right now, if you are convicted of a Class D felony, you pretty much have an economic death sentence. This allows for some hope that you can gain meaningful employment and some advancement in the future,” Monahan said.

Read the rest of the article on the Kentucky Chamber Blog 

Video interview with Ed Monahan on Felon Expungement 

Two Death Sentence Reversals are Further Evidence the Kentucky Death System is Broken

Last week there were two additional reversals of Kentucky death sentences.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed Roger Wheeler’s death sentence. The February 20, 2015 decision recognized that a juror was improperly excused from potential jury service in violation of the right to a fair cross section of the community as required by the 6^th Amendment protection.

On February 19, 2015 the Kentucky Supreme Court reversed Michael D. St. Clair’s capital conviction due to improper introduction of prejudicial 404(b) evidence of an unrelated murder in New Mexico allegedly committed by St. Clair, and improper evidence of the New Mexico victim's background.

There has to be a fix to the broken capital system in Kentucky.

Without significant changes, Kentucky’s death penalty system will continue to be inefficient and ineffective

The American Bar Association Kentucky Assessment Team examined all death sentences imposed in the Commonwealth since 1976, and found that, as of November 2011:

§  78 people have been sentenced to death

§  52 of these individuals have had a death sentence overturned on appeal by Kentucky or federal courts, or been granted clemency,

§  an error rate of  67%

Since 2012 there have been 2 additional death sentences and 2 additional reversals. There are 33 persons on Kentucky’s death row.

The Kentucky Assessment Team found that capital prosecutions occur in far more cases than result in death sentences, concluding that, “This places a significant judicial and financial burden on Commonwealth courts, prosecutors, defenders, and the criminal justice system at large, to treat many cases as death penalty cases, despite the fact that cases often result in acquittal, conviction on a lesser charge, or a last minute agreement to a sentence less than death.” 

The comprehensive 2011 program Audit recommended changes must be made to eliminate waste, abuse and error. Areas of needed reform identified by the ABA Kentucky Assessment Team audit included:

• Inadequate Protections to Guard against Wrongful Convictions (Chapters 2, 3, 4).
• Inconsistent and Disproportionate Capital Charging and Sentencing (Chapter 5).
• Deficiencies in the Capital Defender System (Chapter 6).
• Capital Juror Confusion (Chapter 10).
• Imposition of a Death Sentence on People with Mental Retardation or Severe Mental Disability (Chapter 13).
• Lack of Data (Chapter 12).
• Prevention of Wrongful Convictions (Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5).
• Improvement of Defense Services (Chapter 6).
• Ensuring Proportionality in Capital Charging and Sentencing (Chapters 5, 7).
• Error Correction During Post-Conviction Review (Chapters 8, 13).
• Gubernatorial Clemency Powers (Chapter 9).
• Improved Juror Instruction and Comprehension (Chapter 10).

Senator Robin Webb’s Senate Bill 190 implements many of the important reforms recommended by the ABA Kentucky Assessment Audit in an effort to ensure the system works. It does the following:

1. Creates minimum standards for eyewitness identification procedures to eliminate mistaken or false identifications
2. Directs that interviews of suspects be recorded so courts and juries receive accurate and reliable information about a defendant’s statement
3. Prohibits the execution of a person with a severe mental illness
4. Assures the independence and proficiency of the state crime lab
5. Requires ongoing training and competency on death penalty issues for law enforcement, public defenders, prosecutors, corrections officers, and judges
6. Creates a statewide database for reliable ongoing information relating to capital cases
7. Mandates the Department of Public Advocacy to enforce standards for death penalty cases to be handled by trained competent defense attorneys

An overwhelming majority of Kentuckians support fixing the state’s death penalty system

A 2011 poll shows that a majority of Kentuckians support a suspension of executions to allow time for problems within the system to be remedied. The November 30 - December 4, 2011 survey of 405 most likely voters statewide found 62 percent support a temporary halt to executions. The support was consistent across the state: a majority of men, women, urban, suburban, and rural, Republican, Democratic, and Independent voters all favored a temporary halt to executions. The poll, with an error rate of plus or minus 4.9 percent, was conducted for the Kentucky Assessment Team by Lake Research Partners of Washington, D.C.

The two death sentence reversals in the last week are further evidence the Kentucky death system is broken. The time is now to fix the Kentucky death process or eliminate it.  There are some people who should be imprisoned for the rest of their life. Life without parole meets all appropriate needs of our society.

Contributed by Public Advocate Ed Monahan

KY should reduce the error, waste, abuse with commonsense reforms of KY’s costly death penalty process or eliminate the penalty

Kentucky has an expensive and time-consuming process of prosecuting many death eligible cases as capital cases but almost all cases end with a life or life without parole sentence. And the 35 year error rate for the few cases that result in a death sentence is 67%.

A 2011 Kentucky Audit by the ABA KY Assessment Team uncovered major deficiencies in the way the death penalty has been implemented in Kentucky since 1976. The Audit evaluated Kentucky procedures and practices against national ABA capital benchmark protocols and made 93 Recommendations in the following areas:

ABA Number of Recommendations Per Chapter
Chapter	Title	Recommendations
2	Collection, Preservation & Testing of DNA and Other Types of Evidence	4
3	Law Enforcement Identifications and Interrogations	9
4	Crime Laboratories and Medical Examiner Offices	2
5	Prosecutorial Professionalism	6
6	Defense Services	5
7	The Direct Appeal Process	1
8	State Post-Conviction Proceedings	12
9	Clemency	11
10	Capital Jury Instructions	7
11	Judicial Independence	6
12	Racial and Ethnic Minorities	10
13	Mental Retardation, Mental Illness, and the Death Penalty	20
Total Recommendations		93

Senator Robin Webb’s Senate Bill 190 implements many of the important reforms recommended by the ABA KY Assessment Audit in an effort to ensure the system works. The reforms in SB 190:

1. Create minimum standards for eyewitness identification procedures to eliminate mistaken or false identifications
2. Direct that interviews of suspects be recorded so courts and juries receive accurate and reliable information about a defendant’s statement
3. Prohibit the execution of a person with a severe mental illness
4. Assure the independence and proficiency of the state crime lab
5. Require ongoing training and competency on death penalty issues for law enforcement, public defenders, prosecutors, corrections officers, and judges
6. Create a statewide database for reliable ongoing information relating to capital cases
7. Mandate the Department of Public Advocacy to enforce standards for death penalty cases to be handled by trained competent defense attorneys

The time is now to fix the KY death process or eliminate it.  There are some people who should be imprisoned for the rest of their life. Life without parole meets all appropriate needs of our society.

Contributed by Ed Monahan

A New Focus on Lockups at the Justice System's Front End - The Crime Report

Amid increasing attention to crowded U.S. prisons, the Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation is trying to shift the focus to local jails that house many more people for much shorter periods, often in poor conditions.

The foundation assembled criminal justice leaders from around the U.S. in Washington, D.C., yesterday to outline a plan to spend $75 million over five years to promote reforms that could reduce jail populations and hold down crime rates at the same time.
.... 

Several panelists yesterday, noting high repeat-crime rates among released prisoners in the U.S., complained of what Kentucky state Public Advocate Ed Monahan called a "lack of sustained leadership." Using an analogy to auto manufacturing, Monahan said that a company producing autos that failed at the rate that ex-prisoners do would go out of business or change executives.

Read the complete article

1 pill, 10 years: Court reviews vet's sentence: Louisville C-J

To his lawyer, James Kidd is the "epitome" of the kind of person the Kentucky General Assembly does not want sitting in prison.
An injured Gulf War veteran with no prior felony record, Kidd was convicted of drug trafficking in a controlled substance in 2009 for selling a single pill and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

His sentence was probated on the condition that he leave Kentucky for five years, but when he returned to visit his ailing mother in 2012, a circuit judge in Lee County revoked his probation and ordered him to serve the 10 years, the maximum allowed by law.
To Public Advocate Ed Monahan, locking up offenders like Kidd is why Kentucky is wasting millions of dollars a year on corrections even as crime rates fall.

"We should not be imprisoning a wounded veteran for 10 years at an average year's cost of $21,906 … because he was technically in violation of his conditions of probation," Monahan said in an email.
....

On Thursday, the Kentucky Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether Kidd should have been sent to prison, or whether Circuit Judge Thomas Jones should have imposed lesser sanctions, such as electronic monitoring — as spelled out in the state's groundbreaking 2011 sentencing reform law designed to reduce incarceration and steer tax dollars into drug treatment.
....

Jewell and Monahan said the case also will be crucial in determining whether judges must heed House Bill 463, the Public Safety and Offender Accountability Act, which requires that graduated sanctions be considered before an offender on probation is sent to prison.

Read the complete story on the Courier Journal's web page

County Attorneys collect $4.1 million diverting 28,468 County Traffic Safety cases

County Traffic Safety Program Authorized by Legislature
 
Since fiscal Year 2013, County Attorneys have had the discretion to create a County Traffic Safety Program under KRS 186.574(6):

(6) (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this subsection, a county attorney may operate a traffic safety program for traffic offenders prior to the adjudication of the offense.
(b) Offenders alleged to have violated KRS 189A.010 or 304.39-080, offenders holding a commercial driver's license under KRS Chapter 281A, or offenders coming within the provisions of subsection (5)(b) or (c) of this section shall be excluded from participation in a county attorney-operated program.
(c) A county attorney that operates a traffic safety program:
1. May charge a reasonable fee to program participants, which shall only be used for payment of county attorney office operating expenses; and
2. Shall, by October 1 of each year, report to the Prosecutors Advisory Council the fee charged for the county attorney-operated traffic safety program and the total number of traffic offenders diverted into the county attorney-operated traffic safety program for the preceding fiscal year categorized by traffic offense.
(d) Each participant in a county attorney-operated traffic safety program shall, in addition to the fee payable to the county attorney, pay a twenty-five dollar ($25) fee to the court clerk, which shall be paid into a trust and agency account with the Administrative Office of the Courts and is to be used by the circuit clerks to hire additional deputy clerks and to enhance deputy clerk salaries.

The County Traffic Safety Program can be offered in place of the Traffic School option in KRS 186.574 (1)-(5).

$2,505,149 collected in 66 counties in FY 2013
In FY 13, there were:

• 48,447 traffic school completions with 24% accomplished through online or DVD;
• 18,279 cases were diverted under the county attorney created traffic safety programs
• $2,505,149 collected
• $456,975 going to clerks
• $2,048,174 going to County Attorneys
• $454,170 went to vendors
• 66 of the 120 County Attorneys creating a traffic safety program
• Average total fee paid per case was $137

$4,128,280 collected in 73 counties in FY 2014
In FY 14, there were

• 28,468 cases were diverted under the county attorney created traffic safety programs
• $4,128,280 collected
• $711,700 going to clerks
• $3,416,580 going to County Attorneys
• $587,300 went to vendors
• 73 of the 120 County Attorneys creating a traffic safety program
• Average total fee paid per case is now $147

This means

• another 10,000 cases are not in the system getting a court cost placed on them on top of the previous 18,000 cases 
• the number of participating County Attorneys has increased by 7 to 73
• the average fee has  increased to $145
• an increase of $1.6 million collected bringing it to $4.1 million.

A summary of the FY 13 and 14 data is:
 

Passage of county traffic diversion, 2012’s HB 480, has resulted in substantially less funding for:
1.    General fund (49%);
2.    Kentucky Local Correctional Facilities Construction Authority under KRS 441.605 to 441.695 (10.8%);
3.    Spinal cord and head injury research trust fund (6.5%);
4.    Traumatic brain injury trust fund created in KRS 211.476 (5.5%);
5.    Circuit clerks to hire additional deputy clerks and to enhance deputy clerk salaries (5%);
6.    Department for Public Advocacy (3.5%);
7.    Crime victims' compensation fund created in KRS 346.185 (3.4%);
8.    Justice and Public Safety Cabinet to defray the costs of conducting record checks on prospective firearms purchasers pursuant to the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act and for the collection, testing, and storing of DNA samples (0.7%);
9.    County sheriff in the county from which the court cost was received (10.1%);
10.    Fiscal court in that county for the purposes of defraying the costs of operation of the county jail and the transportation of prisoners (5.5%).
See: KRS 42.320

And also the following under 23A.206; 23A.2065; 24A.176:
1.    $20 to local governments - for payment of expenses for operation of the local government's police department or contracted police services. All funds distributed to counties with fiscal responsibilities for jails or the transporting of prisoners shall be used for the payment of costs associated with the housing or transporting of prisoners.
2.    $5 to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services for the operation of a telephonic behavioral health jail triage system as provided in KRS 210.365 and 441.048 and $5 to General Fund.

Ongoing litigation over the legality of the application of the HB 480 County Traffic Safety Program is now in the KY Supreme Court
 
Litigation over whether the County Traffic Safety Program is diversion, whether a County Attorney can dismiss the case or whether a Judge must dismiss the case, and whether a court cost can or must be applied to the case has worked its way to the Kentucky Supreme Court in a case out of Jefferson County District Court.

On June 25, 2013 the Chief Judge of the Jefferson District Court ruled:

• The traffic diversion program is a “diversion” program
• RCr 8.04 addresses pretrial diversion and requires “the approval of the trial court” for pretrial diversion
• RCr 9.64 addresses dismissal of indictment and  requires permission of the court for dismissal of a citation
• Once a citation is issued a case can only be dismissed by the court under RCr 8.04, RCr 9.64 and  KY Constitution Sections 27, 28, 116
• Court costs can be assessed in diverted cases
• Court costs must be paid on the diverted case in question

On November 18, 2013 the Jefferson Circuit Court entered an order prohibiting enforcement of the District Court’s June 25, 2013 order because KRS 24A.175(3) requires court costs only “upon conviction in a case and KRS 186.574(6) authorizes a traffic safety program “prior to the adjudication of the offense.”

On December 27, 2013 the Court of Appeals entered an order recommending transfer to the KY Supreme Court since the matter was of “great and immediate importance” because of the “potential lost revenue to the state treasury….”

Ann Bailey Smith, Chief Judge, Jefferson District v. Commonwealth of Kentucky Ex. Rel. Michael J. O'Connell and Timothy Higgins, No.  2013-SC-000828, was argued in the Kentucky Supreme Court on December 11, 2014 with David Sexton arguing for Appellee Mike O’Connell and Greg Haynes arguing for Appellant Judge Smith. The dispute now awaits decision by the Kentucky Supreme Court.

$3.7 million lost to court cost beneficiaries
If the 28,468 cases diverted in fiscal year 2014 had a $130 court cost applied and collected, there would have been $3,700,840 collected and distributed according to the Court Cost distribution formula set out in KRS 42.320, 23A.206, 23A.2065, and 24A.176. 

Contributed by Ed Monahan, Public Advocate

Working with Creative Coalitions on Legislation and Issues

Defender Leaders Persuade
Public defender and assigned counsel leaders can influence criminal justice policies. We increase our public policy effectiveness when we partner with creative coalitions,  unusual supporters of a particular bill or issue. And this work with these creative coalitions or unusual supporters of a common bill or issue  creates a context that can help defender programs obtain more resources to address our workloads. That’s the thinking of more and more defender leaders as shaped by the teaching of national thinkers Mark Moore, Peter Loge and others. There is wisdom in thinking strategically. As Robert Caro, a biographer of Lyndon Johnson, said, “The nature of political genius is to find a way when no way appears obvious.”
Working with others to help clients is something we do naturally but usually with those that share our philosophy and way of thinking. Working for clients with those that think differently on many or most issues is too often not something we do. But things are changing. Various defender leaders across the nation are working with unusual supporters on a specific piece of legislation, like felony expungement, or on particular issues from Fourth Amendment  to overcriminalization and decriminalization. As these situational supporters learn more who we are, what we do and our value, they provide improved context for our funding requests.


Unusual allies
Peter Loge in an article Building Coalitions to Define and Win Issue Campaigns said, “In a traditional coalition of allies, the answer is mostly found at your office parties. In building third way coalitions, the answer is generally found among those who you would never, ever invite to your office parties. Instead of rounding up the usuals, round up the un-unusual suspects.”Benefits of political work on public policy issues Mark Moore urges defender leaders to see themselves as political leaders and in that political role advocate a criminal justice public policy agenda that will aid their funding advocacy, “One way to think about this kind of advocacy is that it is directed at increasing the power and authority of public defense systems instead of increasing their funding. Note also that part of this work will be the same kind of political work that is necessary to maintain a flow of appropriations: namely, work with legislators and committees that do the legislative work.” Mark H. Moore, ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES FOR PUBLIC DEFENDERS AND ASSIGNED COUNSEL (April 2001).KY efforts to work with others Kentucky defender leaders have been having conversations with various groups to enlist unusual supporters to work on public policy initiatives that will reduce the cost of corrections. Adoption of these measures would provide savings that can be used for defender funding needs. The KY defender public policy proposals,  10 ways to reduce waste in Kentucky's criminal justice system are found at:  Advocate March 2014 Part 2 . The KY Chamber of Commerce has endorsed a number of these proposals out of their interest in reducing the government costs for Corrections. The July 2014 KY Chamber of Commerce’s The Leaky Bucket: Where We Stand Five Years later includes a section calling for additional criminal justice reform that would reduce KY correctional costs and states:

          Corrections

“Continue full implementation of 2011 sentencing-reform legislation to control the growth in corrections costs and carefully consider legislative efforts to increase penalties that will result in higher corrections cost. Continue this positive trend in more appropriate use of expensive corrections resources with full implementation of 2014 juvenile justice legislation. The General Assembly should also continue reviewing the Kentucky Penal Code with the goal of creating more alternatives to incarceration for low-level, non-violent crimes and focus on jail time for more serious offenses. Potential areas for review recently identified by the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy include:

• Alternative sentencing for flagrant non-support instead of imprisonment for a felony

• Modification of the persistent felony offender statute• Increasing the dollar amount for the felony theft limit• Presuming parole for eligible low-risk offenders

• Adoption of a “clear and convincing” standard for pretrial release

• Creation of a “gross misdemeanor” classification for low-level felonies.”

DPA-NAPD Leadership 
Workload Institute At the National Association for Public Defense and the KY Department of Public Advocacy Public Defense Workload and Leadership Institute in Lexington, KY, I just listened to Ohio public defender Tim Young, NAPD Chair, and Knoxville public defender Mark Stephens, NAPD Vice-Chair,  present The keys to developing a coherent, comprehensive strategy. They talked about strategies to  educate and enlist allies, identifying resistance, implementing and adjusting a plan to advance public defender interests. Their insights are profound and helps me to set my sights higher on working with unusual allies.

Ed Monahan: Public defenders are crucial to fair criminal justice system: Lex H-L Op-ed

Thanks to all who work for a fair, just and balanced criminal justice system, legislators, judges, prosecutors, criminal defense lawyers, the public.

Special appreciation goes to all who promote the right to counsel and the value of public defenders. The right to counsel stands above all other constitutional protections. According to the U.S. Supreme Court: "Of all the rights that an accused person has, the right to be represented by counsel is by far the most pervasive for it affects his ability to assert any other rights he may have."

I am proud of our defenders especially as we celebrate Law Day 2014 because every day they work with courage and resolve to represent every client well.

Examples of Lexington defenders providing high value to citizens they represent and to the community include:

■ Representing an innocent 20-year-old black man wearing a hoodie who was prosecuted for robbery on flimsy evidence and without full investigation of his alibi. After a short deliberation, the jury found him not guilty. Tragically, the client spent 10 months in jail, at taxpayer expense, awaiting release.
■ Resisting an excessive five-year plea offer by representing a client overcharged by prosecutors for felony receiving stolen property and as a second-degree persistent felony offender when a jury found the person guilty of a misdemeanor.
■ Obtaining fair and proportionate punishment when a prosecutor overcharged a client with felony nonsupport. The jury of randomly selected jurors found that a $250 fine was appropriate. 

This representation by counsel is an essential part of our adversary system of justice that has as its fundamental obligation to make sure that fair process is used to achieve reliable outcomes when a person's liberty is at stake.

Tragically, there are a few people who relish the opportunity to attack public defenders. With outlandish rhetoric, these few like Ray Larson say things such as "public defenders are really public offenders."

These few misrepresent criminal justice funding data and criminal justice policy initiatives to seek an unfair advantage. Often, their claptrap is half-truths that can only be intended to mislead those listening. This misinformation is harmful to our American form of justice.

I am not being paid to misinform, misuse data or pompously spew bombast to stir things up. I have a responsibility to seek appropriate funding and reasonable workloads for our public defense system through the use of professional information.

We have a long way to go before sufficient funding is fully achieved for the Kentucky criminal justice system, especially for defenders.

Contrary to the bluster of the partisan few, the reality is that there are substantial financial benefits to society when public defense systems are properly funded.

Public defenders who are competent with manageable workloads and professional independence make sure that the rights guaranteed by our Constitution are protected for the citizen accused and that no one's liberty is taken unless they are proven guilty.

I want our criminal justice system to have proper resources. I work for that reality. I served on the American Bar Association Task Force on Preservation of the Justice System that was co-chaired by Ted Olsen and David Boies.

I have been a part of the Kentucky Bar Association effort to obtain the necessary funding for the Kentucky Court of Justice.

There are practical reasons to provide adequate funding to the whole criminal justice system: To increase timely resolution of cases; to allow each case to be fully dealt with; to increase the reliability of the results.

When staffed adequately, public defenders increase efficiencies, prevent overcharging and expensive wrongful convictions, and lower costly incarceration rates for counties and states by advocating for pretrial release and alternate or reduced sentences.

I call for more resources for our courts and prosecutors every time I have an opportunity. I do so today on Law Day 2014 as I continue to ask for adequate resources for our Kentucky public defense system.

Kentuckians deserve a criminal justice system that has the resources to attract and retain high-caliber leaders to do what is the most important work in our communities: determining whether someone's liberty or life should be taken from them.

View on Lexington Herald Leader webpage

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/05/01/3220769/ed-monahan-public-defenders-are.html?sp=/99/349/#storylink=cpy

Policymakers take smarter approach to crime, reducing state correctional costs while the crime rate is falling

From 1985 – 2012, there have been unambiguous divergent trends between the incarceration rates and crime rates:

•  US total crime rate        down 37.7%
• US violent crime rate     down 30.5% 
• KY total crime rate        down 5.8%
• KY violent crime rate    down 27.1%
• US Incarceration rate     up 139%
• KY Incarceration rate     up 280.7%

Here’s a picture of what that has meant in Kentucky and nationally from 1985 – 2012:

During this period, many believe that the drop in crime is primarily caused by the enormous increase in incarceration and the decrease in release. However, the “reality is far more complex…. [A]bout 25% of the decline in violent crime can be attributed to increased incarceration. While one-quarter of the crime drop is not insubstantial, we then know that most of the decline in crime — three quarters — was due to factors other than incarceration.” See:  Ryan S. King, Marc Mauer, Incarceration and Crime: A Complex Relationship (2005) at 3,4

These facts support a less costly response to crime in the context of declining crime rates. “During the last 30 years of incarceration growth, we have learned a great deal about the financial and social costs and limited effectiveness of incarceration on crime rates. While incarceration is one factor affecting crime rates, its impact is more modest than many proponents suggest, and is increasingly subject to diminishing returns. Increasing incarceration while ignoring more effective approaches will impose a heavy burden upon courts, corrections and communities, while providing a marginal impact on crime. Policymakers should assess these dynamics and adopt balanced crime control policies that provide appropriate resources and support for programming, treatment, and community support.” Id. at 8.

The good news: many policy makers are paying attention, including Kentucky policy makers. According to a Pew December 2013 Report, in the last 5  years, often with the assistance  of that Pew's Public Safety Performance Project, “the majority of states reduced both crime and imprisonment rates. The relationship between crime and incarceration is complex, but states are showing that it is possible to reduce them at the same time.” That has been what has occurred in Kentucky with the help of Pew.

There is energy from people along the entire political spectrum for commonsense criminal justice reform. In a 2003 article Three Strikes And You're Broke, Cal Thomas reflected what people are thinking, “After two decades of being ‘tough on crime’ by ‘locking them up and throwing away the key’ - to recall two of the effective political slogans of the past - the bill has come due. ….What are taxpayers getting for their money? They get a false sense of security, as if putting current criminals behind bars insures there won't be future criminals. If locking up everyone now committing crimes would eliminate crime, I'd be all for it, but new criminals are born, or made, every day. Something is wrong with the system….We do retribution well. We should be focusing on restitution.”

The December 2013 Pew Report demonstrates that “Prison decline has little impact on crime rates.”

Pew's Public Safety Performance Project works with states to advance data-driven, fiscally sound policies and practices in the criminal and juvenile justice systems that protect public safety, hold offenders accountable, and control corrections costs. Read more about Kentucky’s decline in imprisonment and crime rate in the last  5 years and how Kentucky ranks compared to other states in the December 2013  PEW Report, States Cut Both Crime and Imprisonment at this link.

Contributed by Ed Monahan

WAVE 3 - Taxpayers face rising costs for public defenders

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - What's the price of justice? In Louisville taxpayers are spending millions of dollars a year defending accused criminals who can't afford an attorney. In fact an increasing number of accused criminals are getting a free defense. One that can be very effective.

Innocent until proven guilty. And a country willing to pay to get you off the hook.

"One of our highest values is that the right to council is essential if the state wants to prosecute somebody," said Ed Monahan,  chief administrator for the Kentucky Department for Public Advocacy, the agency that oversees the state's public defenders.

In 1963 the Supreme Court unanimously ruled states had to fund free legal counsel for criminal defendants who couldn't afford it. 50 years later, the public defender system in Kentucky is a statewide network of attorneys, investigators and advocates that cost taxpayers $41,500,000 a year.

In 2011, it was public defenders who successfully fought to have Kerry Porter's murder conviction overturned. In 2012, public defenders worked cases for more than 185,000 of Kentucky's accused.

complete article and video