A work group studying Kentucky’s prison system predicts additional incarceration costs totaling more than a half billion dollars over the next decade, if further legislative remedies aren’t pursued.
The group projected that the inmate population increase 19 percent over those ten years.
The information compiled by the Criminal Justice Policy Assessment Council’s Justice Reinvestment Work Group puts the inmate growth at 4,400 in the next decade, if no substantial changes are made.
Kentucky Justice Secretary John Tilley calls the projected growth unsustainable, considering the state’s pension crisis and other budgetary needs. State justice officials said criminal justice reforms enacted earlier this year were aimed at improving public safety and lowering repeat offenses through stronger reentry programs.
Formal recommendations scheduled to be released in mid-December are expected to include creating pathways to treatment rather than incarceration.?
© 2017 WEKU
