October 03, 2008 06:17 pm
—
When it comes to punishing those convicted of crimes in this state, the most important question is: How much are we, as taxpayers, willing to pay to keep those who break the law behind bars?
Too often the same politicians who talk tough about keeping criminals in prison for longer periods have shown an unwillingness to come up with the tax dollars to pay for that incarceration.
Like most other states, Kentucky is experiencing the effects of the mandatory sentencing laws enacted in the last 10 to 20 years: The state’s prison population has soared from just over 3,000 in 1970 to about 21,700 today. And unless changes in the law are made, there is no end in sight. The prison population is expected to top 31,000 in a decade.
Corrections is the fastest growing item in the state’s budget, now topping $400 million a year.
Yet the state’s efforts to reduce its prison population and ease the strain it is placing on the budget have been opposed by Attorney General Jack Conway and commonwealth’s attorneys throughout the state.
On Wednesday, Conway’s office filed a lawsuit contending that the state’s early release of inmates — ranging from common thieves to sex offenders and murderers — is unconstitutional and should be stopped. Earlier, a circuit court judge in south-central Kentucky halted the early release of those convicted in his court.
The problem with such legal actions is that they ignore the reason for the early releases.
Faced with a skyrocketing prison population, Kentucky legislators earlier this year sought to ease the state’s financial woes by approving the early release plan. That plan was included as part of the budget in a effort to reduce the costs of housing inmates in the face of a projected $900 million drop in state revenue over the next two fiscal years.
The General Assembly allowed state prison officials to give inmates more credit than normal for time served out on parole. The extra credit has gone toward fulfilling inmates’ minimum sentences and has saved about $12.5 million. So far, about 3,600 inmates or parolees have been released under the new calculations, Justice Cabinet spokeswoman Jennifer Brislin said.
Conway said the release plan was illegal, unconstitutional and jeopardized public safety. It also violates separation of powers and the state’s Truth in Sentencing law, he said.
Conway has a point. The Truth in Sentencing law mandates that juries and victims of crimes be told in advance how much time a convicted felon will spend in prison under the sentence he or she is given. If that inmate is later released at an earlier date, then that could be a violation of the Truth in Sentencing law.
Franklin County Circuit Judge Phillip J. Shepherd, who has been assigned Conway’s lawsuit, said Thursday he wants more time and information before deciding whether to block the early prisoner release program.
“I don’t think I’ve got the power or the right to examine all the pros and cons of whether this is a good policy or a bad policy,” Shepherd said. “I do have the power to decide if actions of the legislature are in conformity with its constitutional obligation.”
He’s right. Whether the early release program is good policy or not is not really the issue. It’s whether state legislators suspended existing laws by including the program in the budget.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Eddy Montgomery, whose office covers three counties in the Somerset area, challenged the early release program earlier this summer. Montgomery knows what the General Assembly should have done instead of just including the program in the budget.
“If they don’t want so many people in prison, they need to rewrite the criminal code,” said Montgomery.
A rewrite of the criminal code definitely is needed in Kentucky, but that will take time to accomplish. In the meantime, the question remains: How much are we willing to pay to keep criminals in jail? Being tough on crime is politically popular, but raising taxes or cutting other programs in order to pay for prisons is not so popular.
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.