FRANKFORT — Kentucky’s cost for incarcerating felons is approaching $500 million, nearly half of the budget shortfall facing the state over the next two years. The prison population is more than 21,000 and expected to exceed 23,000 in two years. Two years ago, Kentucky led the nation in the rate of incarcerating its citizens.

Rep. Johnny Bell, D-Glasgow, has read the studies done by University of Kentucky law professor Dr. Robert Lawson. A practicing attorney, Bell has seen the effects of Kentucky’s stringent persistent felony offender laws which are often stacked on top of drug enhancement laws to threaten defendants with longer sentences. Lexington attorney and lawmaker, Jesse Crenshaw, who chairs a judiciary budget subcommittee has seen the effects of those laws both in the courtroom and on the state budget.

Crenshaw tells of a client facing trial on drug charges whom Crenshaw thought had a case for acquittal. But when the prosecutor informed his client that he was facing a much longer sentence because of the PFO statutes, “My client wouldn’t let me take the case to a jury.”

But Bell’s attempt to soften just a bit those laws – not eliminate them – for non-violent drug offenders faces a suddenly uphill climb it appears. The bill’s chances may not have been helped by a jab Gov. Steve Beshear took at lawmakers last week. He said lawmakers looking into the causes of a prison riot – blamed by some on the poor quality of inmate food – were not focusing on the state’s “real problems” but worrying about criminals “who wish they could go to Wendy’s.”

“It seemed to me it had a tone of sort of making light of our concerns,” about the prison riot Bell said Tuesday. He added that in the past he thought Beshear supported efforts to reduce sentences which often seem disproportionate to the crime as a way to reduce prison populations and prison costs. And he conceded Beshear’s remarks might make it harder to pass any legislation to shorten some sentences for non-violent crimes.

Bell said his bill hadn’t yet been filed and that he was to “run it by leadership” before filing it. Later Tuesday, Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, sounded as if he’s not keen on the idea anyway.

“I really believe one of the things we need to look at is the GPS thing,” Stumbo said when asked about Bell’s idea. He was speaking of electronic monitoring devices – Stumbo is sponsor of a bill to require some persons charged with domestic violence to wear the global positioning system devices to monitor their movements. But the bill will also allow them to be used for pre-trial release – which would save counties the cost of jailing defendants before trial but not after sentencing.

Stumbo said Tuesday he doesn’t see the PFO laws as a contributing factor to the corrections problem, pointing instead to the “drug epidemic.” But that’s the point made by Lawson, Bell, Crenshaw and others. Minor drug offenders are often threatened with much longer sentences and plead out rather than going to trial. So more people end up behind bars and it costs the state on average $19,000 a year to house them.

But the former attorney general said most people don’t think the cost is too high to house criminals – he says it’s only about 2 cents to 3 cents on every dollar spent by the state.

“Most people in Kentucky will say that’s not too much,” Stumbo said. “I’m not an advocate of reforming the penal code.”

RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com. Follow CNHI News Service stories on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cnhifrankfort.