Misinformation has led to costly policy in Kentucky criminal justice system
Taxpayers are served well by the Herald-Leader’s series on the abuses in our jail system that highlights our injudicious wasteful ways. Kentucky incarceration and its costs increase while crime declines. We incarcerate many imprudently. We waste millions of dollars on over confinement, pillaging money from other social needs. There is a smarter approach.
Most people believe our overall and violent crime rates are increasing. Why? We all have a Ph.D. in media criminology because we read the paper and watch the 11:00 p.m. news. The facts are otherwise.
Kentucky has declining crime rates, both overall and violent. Both are below national rates.
From 1985 to 2018 the overall Kentucky crime rate declined by 26 percent and the KY violent crime rate declined by 30 percent. Kentucky’s criminal cases declined from 250,034 in 2005 to 216,956 in 2018, a decline of 33,078 cases over 14 years.
Between 2010 and 2018, the total number of criminal cases opened in Fayette County declined. In 2010 there were 18,804 cases in district court and 2,052 in circuit court. In 2018 there were 13,676 in district and 1,885 in circuit. From 2010 to 2018, DUI cases declined from 1,665 to 1,079.
Yet our incarceration rate in Kentucky increased 312 percent since 1985, the 10th highest in the country at great cost. The total Kentucky Corrections budget for fiscal year 2020 is $628 million. And that is just for state inmates.
Counties pay many millions more to run their jails. In many counties the largest budget item is the jail budget. In too many counties the jail budget is more than all other county expenditures combined. This level of expenditures for incarceration is robbing Kentucky communities of funds for treatment and other pressing local social and infrastructure needs.
In just two counties, the jail costs are over $100 million combined. In 2012, Fayette County corrections cost $31.1 million. The LFCUCG’s corrections budget for 2020 is nearly $42 million. The Jefferson County’s corrections budget for 2020 is $64.3 million.
Making matters worse, too many counties have built jails based on a financial plan to pay for the jail by housing state prisons for which they receive money from the state. Build it bigger and get more paying customers may sound good but it has proven to be financially imprudent. More importantly, it debases us as a people by making inmates a profit center.
Persons accused of a crime are presumed innocent and entitled to be released prior to trial unless they are a flight risk or a danger to the community. Contrary to this constitutional guarantee, many prosecutors and judges make sure the accused is incarcerated pretrial. In Kentucky, the pretrial release rate statewide was 66 percent in 2018. In Fayette County, the pretrial release rate was 45 percent in 2018. Fayette County is a costly outlier. Poverty has become a crime in our city.
Kentucky legislators have allowed prosecutors and judges to block common sense criminal reform despite legislative initiatives that were the best evidenced-based thinking available. Some jurisdictions nationally now have prosecutors and judges who want a smarter approach. Those prosecutors and judges are leading the way on reform. Kentucky would benefit from that type of leadership. Without it, taxpayers should get their wallets out for the inexorable increasing costs of the current system based on expensive myths and ideology.
When misinformation becomes belief and fuels policy decisions, we all lose. In the case of our criminal system facts, our loss includes a lot of our money. There is a smarter way awaiting us. Who will lead us and free us from our pricey, needless imprisonment?
Ed Monahan is a Lexington based public defense consultant and former Kentucky public advocate.