KENTUCKY'S GROWTH INDUSTRY: PRISONS

Did anyone notice that Kentucky's growth rate among Ohio Valley states
clearly beats all the surrounding seven states in at least one area:
growth in prison population?

In the number of prisoners in state and federal corrections,
Kentucky's rate of growth, compared with the average of the seven
surrounding states, is not twice, not three times, but almost four
times the average rate of all seven surrounding states, up 8.5 percent
from 2003 to 2004.

Our prison population has increased four times as fast as that of the
surrounding seven states. Is this because we have that many more
criminals in Kentucky? Or possibly because our sentencing policies are
now the harshest in the region?

How is this happening? The vast majority are there for using or
selling drugs.

We are paying so much for warehousing ($300 million a year in
Kentucky) that there is nothing left for rehabilitation. If we take
time to examine the situation, we will find that we are simply
punishing addictive behavior by incarceration -- mostly without
rehabilitation. So two-thirds are back in jail within three years.

Local jails and prisons are overcrowded, so much so in some county
jails that inmates are living in Third World conditions. Even when
volunteer programs are offered, some county jail staffs are too busy
with the overcrowded warehousing of inmates to accept the offer.

Are our sentencing policies creating a new underclass of people
trapped in addiction, joblessness and resentment?

Is this a system of justice? Are these policies protecting our
communities, or undermining our safety and security? Who will examine
and speak to these issues?

Paschal Baute

Lexington