Another study links skyrocketing prison costs with PFO laws

By Ronnie Ellis

Another group has looked at Kentucky’s large prison population and costs and found more or less the same solutions — but they’re not likely to be the answers most lawmakers seek.

The Legislature’s Program Review and Investigations Committee discussed a draft report last week from the legislature’s staff: “Cost of Incarcerating Adult Felons.”

The draft report offers several observations and conclusions that mirror those of other studies, most notably those by University of Kentucky law professor Robert Lawson.

The study found that the average number of state inmates increased 42 percent from 2000 to 2009, and the annual cost of incarcerating them rose 53 percent during that period.

Rep. Ken Upchurch, R-Monticello, called those data “fairly astonishing” and ominous if it isn’t halted or slowed.

“If it continues at that rate, we’re looking at close to a billion dollars to house inmates in 10 years and that’s pretty spooky,” Upchurch said.

Last year, the Pew Center for the States reported that Kentucky had the fastest growth in incarceration of any state in the country, although the LRC draft report concludes Kentucky’s experience isn’t that much different from other states.

But during the 10-year period from FY 2000 to 2009, the corrections budget went from $294 million a year to more than $451 million, according to the study.

“The large inmate population is due in part to an increasing number of offenses defined as felonies and longer sentences for persons defined as persistent felony offenders,” the report concludes.

Almost 46 percent of inmates were convicted of non-violent crimes, the study says, and the cost of incarcerating those 9,430 inmates is about $136.2 million a year.

Lawson, the UK law professor and others have called on lawmakers to revise the persistent felony offender laws, which enhance sentences for repeat offenders. Originally passed in the mid-1970s, the PFO law was initially designed for offenders who had been imprisoned and then committed subsequent felonies after their release.

But over the years, lawmakers increased the number of offenses that could trigger the PFO law and added enhancements to lengthen sentences, many for drug related offenses and non-violent crimes.

Prosecutors like Ray Larson, Fayette Commonwealth Attorney, and Chris Cohron, Warren Commonwealth Attorney, contend the laws make the public safer by locking up dangerous criminals.

But that issue didn’t get much attention from the committee Thursday. Sen. John Schickel, R-Union, said all inmates except the infirm or elderly should work in order to pay the costs of incarceration.

“The public expects and I expect,” Schickel said, “that inmates don’t have an entitlement state of mind. Being housed and having food to eat is not an entitlement.”

Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort, Ky. He may be contacted by email at rellis@cnhi.com. Follow CNHI News Service stories on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cnhifrankfort.

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