With a burgeoning prison population, Kentucky has begun to think of more cost-effective ways to handle this problem. Looking towards alternative sentencing plans that have been proven to lower crime rates, they also take into account employment which will allow individuals to remain contributing members of society. Finally, they are also attempting to provide second chances for non-violent offenders through counseling instead of exposing them to more serious criminals.

The Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy is calling for changes to cut down on financial waste in the criminal justice system.
Public Advocate Ed Monahan testified recently at a meeting of the General Assembly Interim Joint Judiciary Committee meeting about 10 proposals the department is making.

Those recommendations include reclassifying minor misdemeanors as violations, creating a “gross misdemeanor” classification for low-level felonies, presuming parole for eligible low-risk offenders, creating alternatives to incarcerations, providing alternative sentencing plans for flagrant nonsupport instead of imprisonment, increasing the felony theft limit from $500 to $2,000, limiting capital prosecutions, creating Class D felony expungement, creating a “clear and convincing” standard for pretrial release decisions and modifying violent offender and persistent felony offender statutes.

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