Sweeping anti-crime bill to protect KY from ‘criminal element’ advances to House

An expansive — and expensive — anti-crime bill advanced to the Kentucky House on Thursday, with supporters saying the legislature erred in recent years by favoring rehabilitation for criminals over prison.

After more than two hours of discussion, the House Judiciary Committee voted 13-to-5, with one pass vote, to approve an amended version of House Bill 5 and send it to the House floor for further action.

The 72-page bill, called the Safer Kentucky Act, would rewrite much of the state’s criminal code, covering the homeless, shoplifters and vandals as well as carjackers, fentanyl dealers and violent offenders, the last of whom would go to prison for life after “three strikes.”

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An impact statement prepared by legislative analysts estimated the bill would bring a “significant increase in operational costs” for local and state governments, largely by putting more people in local jails and state prisons and requiring them to be held for longer.

Thirty-seven parts of the bill would raise incarceration costs, according to the statement, but no estimated total cost is included. The state budget recently proposed by the House would spend $748 million on the Department of Corrections in Fiscal Year 2025 and $778 million in Fiscal 2026, for a two-year total of $1.52 billion.

Backers of the bill say it’s an overdue get-tough measure after years of soft-hearted criminal-justice reform in Kentucky that tried, with mixed success, to reduce inmate populations.

“What I’ve seen in (the last) 27 years is an evolution, and it’s come from the legislature, that we need to care more about the offenders than the community. And that is not working,” said Jenny Oldham, Hardin County attorney and president of the Kentucky County Attorneys Association.

“With this bill, House Bill 5, we are reasserting some basic and simple truths,” said the bill’s lead sponsor, state Rep. Jared Bauman, R-Louisville. “And that is criminals, not society, are accountable for their actions. And society has the right to protect itself from the criminal element.”

However, opponents said the bill is too broad and ham-handed. Kentucky already has one of the highest incarceration rates in the country, with chronic jail overcrowding. Finding new ways to lock up people won’t necessarily make the state safer, they said.

They particularly objected to sections of the bill letting police fine and arrest homeless people for a newly created offense, “unlawful camping,” and another to allow business owners to use “a reasonable amount of force” to protect themselves and prevent the escape of a suspected shoplifter.

“What this bill will do is criminalize our homeless people, criminalize our mentally ill people, criminalize our addicted people who are suffering from substance abuse disorder, and it will criminalize the poorest among us,” said state Rep. Nima Kulkarni, D-Louisville.

“It is not going to deter criminals who are going to do those crimes because we are not addressing any of these underlying reasons for these crimes in this bill.”

The bill has 52 sponsors in the House, which currently has 98 members due to two vacancies, suggesting a good chance at passage in that chamber.

Among its many sections, the bill would:

▪ Create a “three strikes and you’re out” law. Kentuckians convicted of violent felonies on three separate occasions would face life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for the third offense.

▪ Add attempted murder to the violent offender statute, which would require anyone convicted of the crime to serve most of their sentence before they are eligible for parole.

▪ Expand Kentucky’s death penalty eligibility to include murder of a “first responder” — such as a police officer, firefighter or emergency medical worker — who was killed in the line of duty.

▪ Deny probation, parole or any other form of conditional release for people convicted of a crime in which they used a gun in violation of state law, including guns that were stolen, defaced or loaded with restricted ammunition.

▪ Require at least one parent or guardian to attend a youth’s juvenile court hearings, or else be fined $500 and ordered to perform 40 hours of community service.

▪ Expand the definition of murder to include the sale of fentanyl or fentanyl derivatives if the use of the drug by the buyer led to their death.

▪ Elevate the offense level for people convicted of bringing fentanyl or fentanyl derivatives into a jail or prison, from the current Class D felony to a Class B felony.

▪ Create the Class B felony of carjacking, or stealing someone’s motor vehicle away from them by means of force or intimidation.

▪ Expand the felony and misdemeanor criminal mischief laws to include vandalism with property damage of $500 or more, although vandals could reduce their punishments by repairing or replacing the damaged property.

▪ Create the crime of unlawful camping for homeless people who remained on streets, sidewalks, parks, under bridges or blocking entrances to homes, businesses or public buildings, with the intent to sleep or camp. A first offense would be a violation, which could bring a $250 fine. Future offenses would be a Class B misdemeanor.

The amended version of the bill passed by the committee cut language that would have prohibited local governments from spending federal money on “Housing First” programs, although a restriction on state funds remains.

Housing First prioritizes finding permanent housing for homeless people and then, once there is a roof over their heads, providing any mental health or addiction treatment they might need.

▪ Prevent charitable bail organizations, such as the nonprofit Louisville Bail Project, from posting $5,000 or more in bail to secure an inmate’s release from jail. It also would prohibit the nonprofit groups from posting bail for inmates charged with certain crimes, such as domestic or dating violence or felonies designated as violent offenses.

▪ Clarify a “shopkeepers privilege” that would allow business owners and their employees to use “a reasonable amount of force necessary” to protect themselves and prevent the escape of a suspected shoplifter they’ve detained or the loss of goods from their businesses. This would be intended as a criminal and civil shield.

The amended version of the bill also dropped language that would have changed the Kentucky Parole Board so its members served at the pleasure of the governor and could be removed by him before their four-year terms expired. Also, parole approvals would have had to be unanimous, made by panels of three to six members.

Rep. Kimberly Poore Moser, R-Taylor Mill, voted “pass” on the bill Thursday, protesting that it was overwhelming.

“I feel like we’re looking at 10 different bills here. It’s too much,” Moser said. “I think we’re trying to do too many things in this one bill.”

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