NCJ Number
237666
Date Published
July 2011
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This report examines the impact of the Public Safety and Offender Accountability Act implemented by the Kentucky Legislature to deal with the problem of rising prison costs and recidivism rates.
Abstract
In 2010, Kentucky convened a task force to examine the problem of rising prisons costs and increasing rates of incarceration and prisoner recidivism. The task force found that the prison population in the State had increased by 45 percent between 1999 and 2009, that spending for corrections increased by 214 percent over the two decades ending in fiscal year 2010, and that rates of recidivism had risen from rates seen in the 1990s. Data obtained by the task force indicated an overall increase in arrests and court cases, as well as increasing incarceration rates for technical parole violators. Using these findings, the task force produced a set of reforms that led to creation of the Public Safety and Offender Accountability Act of 2011. The intent of the law is to enhance public safety and improve the performance of the State's correctional system. The reforms implemented as a result of the law are expected to reduce corrections costs by $422 million over 10 years and decrease the size of the prison population by an estimated 3,000 prisoners. The laws reforms include focusing the use of expensive prison beds on serious offenders, reducing recidivism by strengthening probation and parole efforts, improving the performance of governmental correctional agencies, and reinvesting savings from the reforms to strengthen probation and parole efforts. 25 endnotes