MANCHESTER, Ky. -- A new report says the number of Kentucky women, including mothers, who are incarcerated has skyrocketed.

Kentucky Youth Advocates found between 1988 and 2016, the number of women in prison increased by more than 1,000%. And the number in jail was up more than 700% from 1985 to 2018 - both outpacing national rates.

Stephanie Hoskins, Southeastern Kentucky addiction services supervisor at Volunteers of America's Freedom House, a women's recovery center in Manchester, said drug-related charges are a huge driver of these numbers. She said making substance-use treatment accessible to more women and allowing them to stay with their children, benefits communities.

"Our Freedom House model, it is a two-generational solution. When we care for that mother, and that mother is getting the treatment they need for their substance-use disorder, we're helping them start their new life over," Hoskins said. "And we're also giving hope and possibility to their children, that they're going to get their mother back."

One in 10 Kentucky children has had at least one parent incarcerated, the third-highest rate in the nation. Studies show this can trigger a host of negative consequences for kids, from greater risk of housing instability to behavioral issues and low grades in school.

Cortney Downs, policy and advocacy director at Kentucky Youth Advocates, said when a woman is a child's primary caregiver, courts should consider community-based alternatives for nonviolent offenses, such as substance-use treatment, vocational training and parenting classes. She added even a relatively brief period of time when a parent is in prison can have traumatic psychological effects on children.

"These kids still really love their parents. From the engagement that we've done, we don't really get a lot of kids who are like, 'I just don't want to be around them,'" Downs said. "There's this intense love that they still have, this desire to still be at home with their parents, of wanting to maintain that connection and that relationship with them."

Christina Compton, lead peer support intake supervisor at Freedom House, said mothers in recovery there can live with their children up to age 17. She said prior to a mother's incarceration, kids are more likely to have lived with her, and often then end up staying with relatives or friends or are placed in foster care.

Compton said she believes in order to break the cycle of addiction, it's critical families stay together.

"So, that eliminates the need of outside-of-family placement," Compton said. "A lot of times, we help them navigate their DCBS cases, and it keeps the children in a safe and healthy environment."

She added the impact on communities could be profound, given the scale of the problem. The report says between 2017 and 2019, in every Kentucky county, at least one-third of people incarcerated in state custody were parents.

A package to improve public safety is moving ahead in the California state Legislature - with a floor vote in the State Assembly on the first bill expected this week.

Assembly Bill 2215 puts into statute that police officers have the discretion to send people arrested for low-level offenses directly to supportive services.

Anthony DiMartino - government affairs director with the nonprofit Californians for Safety and Justice - said sometimes public safety is best served when people avoid arrest and instead get therapy, addiction support or help getting a job.

"We're also hoping to raise awareness that this is something officers can do, and then also encourage partnerships more with officers to look at what's in their community," said DiMartino, "as alternatives to jail booking."

A second bill would increase transparency and accountability on money sent to the counties as part of the Public Safety Realignment.

A third bill would require police officers, prosecuting attorneys and investigators to identify themselves any time they're interviewing a family member of someone killed or severely injured by police.

DiMartino said they also support AB 2499, which would ensure that survivors of violent crime and their family members can take unpaid time off work to address safety concerns and heal.

"We're hoping to broaden the scope a bit," said DiMartino, "and make it more clear that family members of victims are able to also tap into unpaid leave to support their family member that has been a victim."

A fifth bill would make it easier for justice-involved people and crime victims to speak freely during restorative justice programs - by making the communications inadmissible in other legal proceedings.

Missouri went through with its first execution of the year, as Brian Dorsey was put to death last night, just after 6 p.m. CT.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to stop Dorsey's execution. He was convicted of murdering his cousin Sarah Bonnie and her husband Ben nearly 20 years ago.

The advocacy group Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty launched several recent campaigns on Dorsey's behalf to spare his life.

Jenni Gerhauser, a cousin to both Dorsey and Sarah Bonnie, expressed belief in his redemption.

"Brian is more than the worst moment of his life," Gerhauser stressed. "There is so much more to him."

Gerhauser fondly remembered him as fun and charming from their visits during holidays. Dorsey's current lawyers said he was in a drug-induced psychosis when he killed the Bonnies in 2006 and his attorneys at the time had been offered money, preventing them from fighting the death penalty with his guilty plea deal.

Gov. Mike Parson confirmed Monday the state would move forward with Dorsey's death sentence, rejecting a separate request for clemency. More than 70 current and former corrections officers had urged the governor to commute Dorsey's sentence, arguing he had been rehabilitated.

Claudia Boyce, also a cousin in the family, said it should not be a decision for the state to make.

"You know, that's supposed to be God's decision, not ours," Boyce contended.

Dorsey received a lethal injection Tuesday evening. Lethal injection became an option for people on Missouri's death row in 1987, alongside lethal gas.


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Amid overcrowding and unsafe conditions in West Virginia jails, state lawmakers introduced bills that would allow judges to take a 'second look' at an individual's original sentence.

If a court determines they no longer pose a threat to the community, the person could be released, placed on supervision, or receive a shortened sentence.

Sara Whitaker - criminal legal policy analyst with the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy - said West Virginia is one of the few states that has seen its prison population balloon over the past decade, despite declining crime.

She noted that as of last month, more than 500 people in the state were in jail awaiting transfer to a prison.

"As a result, eight out of 10 of the regional jails in the state were beyond capacity," said Whitaker, "with hundreds of people assigned to sleeping on the floor."

The bills failed to advance this session, but Whitaker said advocates are hopeful lawmakers will consider them next year.

The state's jails remain among the deadliest in the country, with at least 91 people losing their lives while incarcerated in the past few years.

According to the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, jail bills cost counties $45 million in 2022.

Nationwide, long sentences have led to growth in the number of older people behind bars.

Whitaker pointed out that 'Second Look' legislation could help the state avoid turning its prisons into nursing homes, and said the number of elderly people in prison has tripled in the past two decades.

"In 2019, West Virginia had to open a dementia unit in one of its prisons," said Whitaker. "There are hospice units across multiple prisons. And experts predict that this is just only going to get worse."

Whitaker added that 'Second Look' policies also offer a way to correct past racial injustice in the criminal legal system.

Black people incarcerated in West Virginia are four times more likely than white people to be serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole, and five times as likely to be serving a life-without-parole sentence.




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