Meeting in small groups since March, the Kentucky Criminal Justice Council has been debating ways to reduce the state's swollen inmate population in prisons and local jails without endangering public safety.
Gov. Steve Beshear expects a report from the council next month so he can propose changes in the penal code to the 2009 General Assembly this winter.
The council -- which includes Justice Secretary J. Michael Brown and about 16 prosecutors, public defenders, legislators and state officials -- plans to meet Nov. 24 to adopt its report. So far, the council's subcommittees favorably have discussed ideas that include:
- Expand parole opportunities for elderly and ailing inmates who no longer pose an obvious threat, but who still have years left to serve;
- Expand substance-abuse programs so they're available at all prisons and every local jail that is contracted to hold state inmates (although panel members note that the state government doesn't seem to have money available for this right now);
- Reclassify possession of small amounts of illegal drugs for personal use as a misdemeanor, rather than a felony, with substance-abuse treatment required upon conviction;
- Rewrite the law on drug trafficking within 1,000 yards of a school so that it only applies to people providing drugs to minors, not drug dealers with adult customers who happen to be in the general vicinity of a school campus;
- Raise the level of felony theft from $300, where it has been for many years, to $500;
- And eliminate the enhanced penalties for second and subsequent convictions of possession of drug paraphernalia.
Some ideas, such as reducing possession of small amounts of marijuana to a criminal violation, punishable by a fine, were offered but discarded, although other states have adopted this. None of the ideas favorably discussed will necessarily be adopted in the final report.
While the council met this year, Kentucky already was releasing more inmates than ever, and more liberally.
Reacting to inmate overcrowding, the General Assembly last winter ordered faster parole reviews and earlier inmate releases based on various credits. Prosecutors are challenging the early releases in court. But in the meantime, many hundreds have been released under the new rules. For the fiscal year that ended June 30, the Corrections Department released more inmates than it admitted, the first time that has happened in at least a decade, dropping the inmate population under 22,000.
-- John Cheves
