STATE LOOKING TO LOWER POPULATION IN PRISONS

Committee Wants to Change Penal Code, Create Alternative Sentences
for Nonviolent Offenders

The Kentucky Justice and Safety Cabinet is working to alter the
state's penal code to reduce prison and jail populations. But a
reduction in jail population might actually be a financial blow to the
Warren County Regional Jail.

A state committee has been set up - incorporating law enforcement,
prosecutors, public defenders and others - to review the code and
recommend changes.

The first meeting of the committee was Monday, and it went extremely
well, Kentucky Public Advocate Ernie Lewis said.

There's a new head of the cabinet, a new governor and a new sense of
urgency, he said - the last making changes a lot more likely to succeed.

"There are too many nonviolent class C and D felons in the prison
system who are drug abusers or mentally ill," Lewis said. "That's what
we're talking about: nonviolent and non-sex-offenders convicted of
class C and D felonies."

Those inmates make up 90 percent of those jailed in state
penitentiaries or county jails in Kentucky, he said.

One missed opportunity to ease overcrowding stems from the tight state
budget, which didn't allow for the expansion of a pilot program in
public advocacy offices to hire a social worker to find alternative
treatments, Lewis said.

That effort would save the state money in the long run, said Renee
Tuck, attorney in charge of the Bowling Green DPA office, which had
one of the four social workers for the pilot program.

"We're going to keep our social worker even though we don't have the
grant money anymore to pay the salary," Tuck said. "I think people are
having a hard time understanding that the program does save the state
money."

Prosecutors from the state and law enforcement will be represented in
the review group to ensure that any changes to the penal code will not
have an adverse impact on public safety, said Chris Cohron,
commonwealth's attorney for Warren County.

There are groups for whom public safety is not a main concern, but who
have been making recommendations to change the penal code, he said.
The first goal of prosecutors and law enforcement, though, is to
protect public safety.

"There are definitely some changes that we as prosecutors and law
enforcement can live with," Cohron said.

One of the major complaints about the current prison population is
that too many drug addicts are serving sentences. But drug users do
not receive prison sentences on their first offense, Cohron said.

For a first offense, an offender typically goes into a drug court type
of program, they then often go to probation, outpatient and then
inpatient treatment before being incarcerated, he said. The drug
abusers who do end up in prison, he added, usually have committed
other crimes or simply cannot conform to the rules of society.

There are a number of people who would be better served in a treatment
facility as opposed to a jail or prison setting, said Warren County
Jailer Jackie Strode, as corrections facilities do not offer a lot of
opportunity for treatment.

But changes to the penal code that reduce prison populations could
initially hurt jails, Strode said. County jails are paid by the state
for housing class D inmates.

The class D facility at the Warren County Jail is not overcrowded
because the state will only allow so many prisoners per facility. The
jail averages more than 600 inmates per day and has 562 beds - meaning
some inmates awaiting trial have to sleep on mattresses on the jail's
floor.

It's unknown how much money would be lost locally because it's unclear
how many inmates would no longer be at the facility, Strode said.

"Warren County has the largest class D facility in the state to my
knowledge with 152 beds," he said.

The county could also lose the work class D inmates do for the county
and other nonprofit entities in Warren County, Strode said.

He said he hopes more class C felons would become eligible for the
work release programs at county jails, he said.

Strode also questioned how some people would respond to alternative
treatment.

In 2007, the Warren County Regional Jail had a recidivism rate of 70
percent, Strode said. The jail housed about 9,000 inmates that year.

The question is, will people take advantage of the break they receive
or will they be part of the 70 percent, he said.

"We have people in our jail who have been in four or five treatment
facilities," Strode said. "In my experience, people have to want to
get and stay off drugs. They also need God's help behind them to get
and stay off drugs."