On this week’s podcast, I asked a question of Greg Stumbo that I don’t typically ask other guests: What will you do about Kentucky’s high incarceration rate? I asked this because the Commonwealth’s chief law enforcement officer could actually have some power to do something about it.

In other parts of the country, the idea of “the progressive prosecutor” is on the rise. Larry Krasner won a historic race in Philadelphia and has made sweeping changes to the DA’s office. Tiffany Cabán, a queer Latina public defender ran for DA, and nearly won the primary (she initially claimed victory, but eventually conceded after a contentious recount).

Unfortunately, I don’t think the reform-minded prosecutor wave is hitting Kentucky anytime soon. The top prosecutors in Jefferson County are probably the closest thing we have, but even so, Kentucky has the ninth highest incarceration in the country, and our prison population continues to grow, while the national rate is dropping. I think it’s important to know just where we stand when it comes to incarceration.

Not only do we have the ninth highest overall incarceration rate, we have the second highest percentage of state inmates in county jails. This means people who have been convicted and sentenced to prison are still sitting in county jails where there is no programming, instead of being transferred to state prisons where they have access to rehabilitative and educational programs. Of course, we know why it’s happening. It saves the state money to just pay a per diem to the counties to house people.

We are also incarcerating women at a high rate. According to a 2016 study, Kentucky saw the largest increase in the female prison population in the country. As of 2018, we had the second highest female incarceration rate in the nation, and we also ranked second for children whose parents are incarcerated. Our pretrial detention rate has also doubled.

So things aren’t great. But what I found interesting in reading about the most recent studies on incarceration in Kentucky was that Daniel Cameron is the person quoted in most of the articles written when a new study came out in 2018. Cameron said: “These startling numbers make passing bold criminal justice reforms even more urgent in this session of the Kentucky General Assembly.” He further stated that “Kentucky’s jails and prisons are bursting at the seams, and stark budget realities are here.” He also talked about the need for treatment alternatives and ending the “revolving door of incarceration.” He even suggested changing felony drug possession to a misdemeanor! All of these articles were from just a year ago when he was the spokesman for Kentucky Smart on Crime.

This is all great to hear, since he’s running to be the state’s chief prosecutor! Although the Attorney General can’t pass legislation, if Mr. Cameron wins his race, I am looking forward to seeing him put his words into action as a reform-minded Attorney General who uses thoughtful prosecutorial discretion and holds law enforcement accountable when necessary.

But, my actual guess is that he is not going to do that. It’s certainly not how he has been running his campaign. In a tweet just a few weeks ago, Donald Trump said that Cameron would be “tough on crime.” And his campaign website certainly doesn’t mention his participation with Kentucky Smart on Crime. It’s crazy how things change in a year, but maybe I’ll be proven wrong.

While I wasn’t very impressed with Greg Stumbo’s answer to my question, I trust that Stumbo will at least hold the state government accountable, and I think he’ll fight for labor rights, education, and healthcare, so I will gladly welcome him back to the job. I guess it’s a lot to ask for a progressive attorney general in Kentucky, so I think we will have to work on fixing the incarceration rate by other means.

Resources

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Originally included in the “My Old Kentucky Podcast Newsletter,”

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