Vince Lang shakes his head, smiling wryly about his timing. At the very time state lawmakers have shown understanding of counties’ financial difficulties in operating county jails, the state faces a major financial crunch.

“Our timing, it seems, couldn’t be much worse,” said Lang, the executive director of the County Judge/Executives Association. “I think there is a budget dilemma, but there’s also more education on this issue thanks to your series and others’ of the General Assembly than ever before.”

“This issue” is the growing costs of jails. (CNHI News Service and CNHI papers in Kentucky just concluded a 10-story examination of the issue of jails which have exploding populations and are placing heavy burdens on county budgets.)

The tight budget won’t keep Rep. Derrick Graham, D-Frankfort, from introducing a bill to ease the strain on counties – and other lawmakers are looking for ways to lessen the load.

Graham said Friday he intends to introduce a bill Monday that reflects the recommendations of a working group of legislators, county and state officials who spent the summer looking at the problem.

The bill would increase the state “bed allotment,” which hasn’t been increased since it was approved in 1983. Presently, the state gives counties about $14 million to pay for county inmates and Graham’s bill would increase that by about $12 million. It would also change the time when the state assumes financial costs for convicted felons from the time of sentencing to the time of a guilty plea or conviction. The estimated cost tag for that is between $6.4 million and $8 million. It would also slightly increase the per diem rate the state pays counties to house Class D and some Class C felons in county jails.

It would gradually make the state responsible for the costs of time served in county jails by those charged with felony crimes before conviction but for which they are credited on their sentences. That provision would kick in over four years, costing the state budget about $9.9 million in 2011, increasing to $43 million in 2014.

The bill calls for the eventual closing of “life safety jails” in the 10 counties where they remain. Life safety jails do not meet jail standards and are used only for temporary custody until the county can arrange to house the prisoner in another county’s jail, usually within 24 hours.

“A few counties probably won’t be happy,” Lang said, “but this gives them four years either to meet jail standards or get out of the jail business.”

The bill would require new jail construction first be approved through a certificate of need process, something recommended by outgoing Corrections Commissioner John Rees and Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Stivers, R-Manchester, who served on the working group which produced the recommendations resulting in Graham’s bill.

And finally, the legislation would attach a consumer price index adjustment to state funding, including the per diem rate the state pays for housing state prisoners in county jails.

“The problem is the financial crunch,” said Graham about the bill’s prospects. “That’s throwing a wrench into some of the things we intended to do.”

Gov. Steve Beshear has said the state must tighten its belt and doesn’t have enough projected revenue to meet its current spending levels, much less increase spending. But he said he will include a call for helping counties in his budget speech Tuesday night before a joint session of the General Assembly. It isn’t likely to include funding, however.

As shown in the CNHI series on jails, part of the problem is the exploding inmate population, many of them incarcerated for non-violent crimes and crimes involving drug abuse. As the public has called for a “get-tough-on-crime approach,” lawmakers increased penalties and criminalized more behavior.

House Judiciary Committee Chair Kathy Stein, D-Lexington, thinks lawmakers need to review its penal code to bring penalties more in line with the risk to society without placing additional strain on jails.

“My hope is we will be able to establish a legislative task force during this session to revisit the penal code,” Stein said last week.

Stein said lawmakers must also be careful not to casually add penalties or crimes in the 2008 session – “It’s important that we not add to the strain on the counties.”

Stein said her committee will closely scrutinize any bills it receives which would add felony offenses or increases jail penalties.

Over in the Senate, Majority Leader Dan Kelly, R-Springfield, is again sponsoring a bill which would allow those charged with non-violent offenses and who test positive for drug use to avoid jail time if they complete a pre-trial, secure substance abuse treatment program.

In addition to rehabilitating the offender, Kelly has said, it will relieve some strain on prisons and jails which are already at the breaking point and save the state and counties money.



RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com.



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