State Senator weighs in on SB90

Jul. 20—On August 1, Pulaski County will officially become a pilot county for Senate Bill 90. Writer of the bill and one of its biggest proponents Christian County Senator Whitney Westerfield weighs in on the bill's effects.

"The goal of the [program] is to eliminate barriers and expand access to treatment for justice-involved individuals," states Kentucky pretrial services who gave a presentation of the bill in Pulaski County Public Library last week. "The legislation provides an alternative to incarceration by allowing eligible defendants, based on qualifying charges and behavioral health needs, to receive treatment for a substance use and/or mental health disorder."

Essentially, rather than go to jail for a non-violent, non-sexual offense, eligible individuals or those recommended to the program by prosecution, can seek mental health treatment or drug rehab to have root causes of crime met.

"It's an attempt to catch low-level offenders who are charged with minor offenses" said Operation Supervisor with Pretrial Service Stephanie Reio. "(The goal) is to catch them there and try to direct them away from the court system and get them the resources they need at the beginning."

Whitney Westerfield gave his reasons for writing the bill and why he thinks it's so necessary.

"For a number of years now, it's become clear to me and lots of other folks... that most of the people in the justice system that we deal with in the justice system... are dealing with some kind of behavioral issue," said Westerfield. "That might be drug addiction. It be psychological or psychiatric. It could be trauma-based, or a combination of all of those things, which is often the case."

Westerfield felt that the best way to address crimes, especially low-level offenders, would be to prevent people from getting into the jail system, and instead, setting them up with mental health and addiction treatment along with steady work and education.

Said Westerfield, "Everyone in the room of stakeholders agrees with that. You can find the most hard-nosed prosecutor (or) the most soft-hearted defense attorney... judges on any of the of the criminal justice philosophy spectrum, everyone, law enforcement, everyone agrees that these folks, those who are going through the system, are struggling with that. And I want to make sure we got them plugged into those services would help that and address those problems earlier and faster."

Westerfield's intention was to "front-load" the process of getting people into addiction and mental healthcare.

As for the offender's record, this bill would keep the case "dormant." So long as the person is "compliant," their charge may be dismissed.

County Attorney Martin Hatfield is a large proponent of this bill, and he felt Pulaski County would be perfect to be one of the many pilot counties for this program.

Westerfield said that these counties were chosen because they were a "good geographical mix." Because Pulaski County has some city centers but also some extremely rural areas, Westerfield saw Pulaski as a perfect place to test the program's usefulness.

Another reason Pulaski County was chosen because the county has access to multiple different service providers. Recently there's been an explosion in the number of mental health providers in Pulaski County, and this should be able to help SB90 accomplish its goals, said Westerfield.

One aspect to Pulaski County crime is the jail overcrowding. There are only 213 beds compared to an overall population of 383. Westerfield said this program will be able to heavily reduce jail numbers and keep low-level offenders out of these terrible jail conditions.

One drawback though, is that Westerfield felt his bill was too exclusive. The list of eligibility requirements include those who have not committed a violent offense and those who charges do not exceed the most low-level of felonies. Westerfield's initial requirements were much lower, he said, but this new list comes with compromises made by other Kentucky congressmen.

If there's one key takeaway, though, it's that this bill is still in very early stages and is still years away from potentially becoming a law. The benefits and disadvantages of this bill will become clear after it's been tested in Pulaski County and other areas, and the working people of Kentucky have had a chance to review the results.