A REVOLVING DOOR

Nearly a third of the inmates who leave Kentucky prisons wind up back
behind bars within two years, a report issued last month found.

The report, which examined 1998 statistics, said 31.6 percent of the
inmates who had left prison after serving their sentence, receiving parole
or winning shock probation were back within two years. While plenty high
enough, that recidivism rate was actually down from a 10- year high of 34.7
percent in 1994.

Moreover, the Kentucky Department of Corrections report found an even
higher recidivism among prisons who had been involved with drugs.
Thirty-six percent of the violent drug offenders and 32 percent of drug
offenders, in general, were back in prison within two years.

The numbers tell a story of the failure of our criminal justice and penal
systems to deal squarely with a major contributor to crime - drugs.

While the public and politicians may clamor for tougher laws and harsher
sentences, until dealing with drug addiction and treatment for dependency
becomes a real focus of criminal justice and corrections, expect the prison
door to continue to revolve.