New governor, lawmakers should shelve political pride to fix this state crisis first
Right now, it’s pretty quiet in Frankfort.
No knives. No blood on the marble floors.
But next week, Democrat Andy Beshear will be inaugurated as governor and about three weeks after that, the Republican General Assembly will convene. The political knife fights can begin.
And yet, for all the bloody predictions, there is one issue on which Beshear and many Republicans agree, and it’s one of the most crucial needs facing Kentucky today: Criminal justice reform. Both sides need to put away petty political considerations in the name of fixing the litany of problems in our draconian justice system that have been exposed by the public health crisis of opioids.
Don’t just take my word for it. From left to right, from the ACLU to the state Chamber of Commerce, advocates agree that Kentucky must change the systemic problems of laws and guidelines that puts too many people in jail when they need treatment instead. As Chamber President Ashli Watts recently noted: “Society cannot incarcerate its way out of the public health crisis that is drug addiction. But in making the possession of drugs a felony rather than a misdemeanor, Kentucky shows a stubborn willingness to continue to try.”
There are both moral and financial failings; the moral issue of putting too many people in prison who should be in treatment instead, which has led to incarceration rates that are draining state and county coffers. Earlier this year, reporter John Cheves laid out the truly horrifying conditions of our county jails overcrowded with state prisoners, as well as the possibility of a federal lawsuit those conditions could provoke.
Kentuckian Holly Harris has become a national leader in the area as executive director of the Justice Action Network, which pushes bipartisan reform for bail, sentencing, recidivism and rehabilitation.
“Certainly, we hope the governor-elect will have an interest in all facets, from sentencing policies to restorative justice, bail reform, probation reform, which are all badly needed in Kentucky,” Harris said. “Our legislators really want to do better, and I’m hopeful this is the area where the governor-elect can reach out across the aisle to form consensus with legislative leadership so we can find ways to do better for the Commonwealth. We’re in a embarrassing situation for our state, but this is an area where we should move forward with policies that save significant taxpayer dollars and lead to better outcomes and a safer communities.”
An omnibus bill in the last legislative session would have redefined some nonviolent crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, including first- and second-offense drug possession. The bill also would have raised the threshold for felony theft from $500 to $2,000. The legislation was estimated to save than $340 million over the next decade.
But it died, and instead, Gov. Matt Bevin announced the state would lease space at two closed private prisons, which were closed in 2013 amid horrendous allegations of sexual assault and mismanagement. Harris said she hopes the new Beshear administration will turn those two facilities into rehabilitation centers for prisoners suffering from addiction.
The current situation “is costing us more money and it’s not keeping our communities safer,” said Senate Minority Leader Morgan McGarvey, D-Louisville. “Democrats and Republicans, really start at the same place in that we want our communities to be safe. Now that we have so many decades of failed policies, we’re taking an evidence based approach to criminal justice reform, and we’ve seen real bipartisan agreement on this in the past.”
Of course, as Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer, put it, “the devil is in the details.” For some, changing some felony levels to misdemeanors is a step too far. While Thayer agrees that there is bipartisan will to improve the criminal justice system, he would counsel incremental steps instead of an omnibus bill that attempts to fix everything at once.
Beshear risks open warfare before the session even starts with three campaign promises that he can accomplish through executive order: To upend the state Board of Education, to restore voting rights to about 140,000 felons who have served their time, and to cancel the Bevin administration’s Medicaid waiver.
“I don’t think he has a policy mandate,” Thayer said of Beshear’s victory of just 5,000 votes over the highly unpopular Gov. Matt Bevin. “I think his only mandate is to be nice. He has to decide how many of these unilateral steps he takes while risking the anger of Republican super-majorities before we’re even back in Frankfort.”
That’s Beshear’s political calculus to make, just as it’s the Republicans’ decision on just how outraged and uncooperative they will be. Both sides will have to concede some things, they will have to decide if the state’s welfare is more important than political pride. What lawmakers on both sides come up with on criminal justice reform may not perfect but it can be good, and it’s an absolute necessity to move Kentucky forward.
