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This morning there was a meeting of the KY Legislature Jail and Corrections Reform Task Force. Here’s highlight of what was discussed (thread): #Kyag20 #kyinterim.
Nearly half the meeting was dedicated to discussing mental health and incarceration testimony from Steve Shannon, the Executive Director of KY Association of Regional Programs, said major takeaway should be that “the sooner the person gets services, the better the outcomes.”
Shannon talked extensively about the criminal justice system (police, jails, drug courts, prisons) "partnering" with mental health services, although it's worth questioning whether this is the best system for this partnership, especially if the goal is helping people upstream.
One good note: Shannon highlighted the Medicaid Expansion and says prior to expansion single males had no way to pay for treatment; said he used to say prior to medicaid expansion if your single a male and needed treatment treatment “You may as well to go jail so you can get it.”
Also discussed was the police trainings that had been introduced that theoretically would enable officers to handle situations with people who have mental health issues. There was questioning from committee members about how helpful that is, especially in smaller/rural areas.
It's a question being asked increasingly given the recent activism over police force/brutality; this essay was just published today on Vox about police officers being called upon to provide social services despite that not being at the heart of their job. https://www.vox.com/2020/7/31/21334190/what-police-do-defund-abolish-police-reform-training
Another note from the committee is that many drug treatment programs in CJ system were borne from the opioid epidemic and are thus opioid specific, so there is also need to investigate this further since people using opioids aren't the only ones in need of treatment.
Another update came from Jason Woosley, a jailer from Grayson County (which holds a lot of federally-incarcerated people). The topic was phone services in jails, and today I learned that phone use by incarcerated individuals is recorded, stored and listened to.
Apparently at the beginning of calls, there is a recorded prompt saying that the call is being recorded (not clear if it also says the call will be stored indefinitely and listened to) and also mechanisms in place that should allow for phone calls to counsel not be recorded.
One of the committee members asked extensively about costs of phone calls for inmates ($0.20 per minute, according to Woosley) and wants to do an ongoing investigation about the costs of phone calls to incarcerated people and why they have to be so expensive.
Noted some defensiveness here from Woosley, who stated that any phone call access is a "perk" although incarcerated people who have no access to their loved ones and community may feel it is less a perk and more a necessity.
The costs of phone calls has become an even more pressing topic because many incarceration facilities have banned in-person visits due to covid-19. @KQED https://www.kqed.org/news/11828999/san-francisco-moves-to-permanently-scrap-phone-call-fees-product-markups-at-county-jails
@StarTribune https://www.startribune.com/incarcerated-people-look-to-senate-to-cap-prison-phone-rates/571863301/
@RomeSentinel https://romesentinel.com/stories/lawmakers-urged-to-cut-costs-of-prison-phone-calls,101234
Speaking of which, video visitation was another topic. There was a discussion about whether video visitation may erode in person visitation and Woosley responded by saying that a lot of the jailers have switched to video visits for “security” concerns.
Another committee member said that there are barriers for family members (like in Eastern Kentucky) to be able to visit and Woosley said both options should be available although most jails don’t have the capacity for video capacity.
Much of the rest of the meeting was more technical information, but one fact of note reported by Amanda Essex of @NCSLorg is that according to the Vera Institute, 62% of people sitting in jails are pretrial (haven't been convicted).
We finally heard Lisa Lamb from KY DOC, who gave talked about Resource Entry Centers ("halfway houses") and private prisons. Of note was the covid-19 update, and data on covid-19 and KY incarceration can be found here: https://corrections.ky.gov/facilities/pages/covid19.aspx
She discussed measures taken to address covid-19 and incarcerated population which included restricting visitation, stopping transfers, enhancing sanitation and symptom screenings (no mention of exploring continuing release of incarcerated people). /end
