Governor Beshear says significant changes in Kentucky’s penal code are needed to address increasing incarceration rates in state prisons. The governor outlined some of his suggestions Friday.
Beshear noted steps need to be taken to try to lower prison population figures. “That’s going to require fewer revocations of parole and probation where we have a far too high rate of revocation. It’s going to require us to look at who should be going into our jails and prisons in the first place and it’s going to take a look at the persistent felony offender law where some people who are just suffering from addiction end up with a very long sentence,” said Beshear.
The governor said many prisons have significant maintenance issues. If incarceration rates can be lowered. Beshear added prison consolidation might be an option.
Governor Beshear spoke Friday to participants at the Kentuckians for Better Transportation Conference in Lexington. He said afterward that increasing state monies would go to help speed up work on the mountain parkway expansion and development of the I-69 bridge in Western Kentucky.?
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