News & Commentary

The ACLU team had a busy week in Frankfort during the seventh week of the 2020 legislative session. Here are some specific highlights about key pieces of legislation we are following and what our team accomplished the week of February 9 to February 15.

The ACLU team had a busy week in Frankfort during the fifth week of the 2020 legislative session. Here are some specific highlights about key pieces of legislation we are following and what our team accomplished the week of February 2 to February 8.

As Halloween nears, Governor Bevin has made a scary announcement. The private prison facility in Floyd County, once known as Otter Creek, is being reopened in response to overcrowding in county jails across the commonwealth. The facility, owned by Tennessee-based company CoreCivic, will be leased to Kentucky and renamed the “Southeast State Correctional Complex.” This “new” facility will be staffed by state employees, not private prison contractors. Job fairs for the new positions are expected to get underway soon as Floyd County prepares to receive hundreds of inmates in the months ahead. Horrific, overcrowding conditions in Kentucky’s jails have been reported recently by the Herald-Leader, but leasing a private prison is not the solution to the problem.

The ACLU of Kentucky, the Institute for Compassion in Justice, and the Children’s Law Center sent a letter to Mayor Greg Fischer and Commissioner Denver Butler at the Department of Juvenile Justice proposing a community-based solution to protect the rights of children and families after the announced closure of the Jefferson County Youth Detention Center (JCYC).

Kentucky Youth Advocates, a partner in the Kentucky Smart on Crime Coalition, analyzed the newest U.S. Census Bureau data from 2016-2018 and found that the Bluegrass State continues to have the highest-in-the-nation rate of children raised by a relative.   Compared to the previous period from 2013-2015, the numbers have nearly doubled from 53,000 to 96,000 children.  Nine percent of KY kids are now in the care of a relative, more than double the national average of four percent. The group cited parental substance abuse or incarceration as two of the key drivers of growth of children being cared for by grandparents, aunts, uncles and other family members.

The Kentucky Smart on Crime Coalition (KY SOC) announces the addition of three new coalition members: Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs, Inc., Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and Volunteers of America Mid-States, Inc.

Robust, data-driven justice reform could be coming to the Commonwealth. The time is now as the state faces the prospect of a $600M increased cost to taxpayers and a 19% rise in prison populations over the next decade if no changes are made.

Kentucky Youth Advocates highlights the urgency of criminal justice reforms in the Commonwealth

Ninth-highest overall rate, second-highest female rate demonstrate necessity of criminal justice reform in 2018 session of General Assembly