FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
(FRANKFORT, KY) — On April 9, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed the “Safer Kentucky Act” (House Bill 5). The Bail Project offered the following comment in response:
“With his veto, the Governor signaled he would neither be complacent nor stand idly by while the state’s elected representatives foolishly advance a bill that will only harm public safety. Make no mistake: the so-called Safer Kentucky Act, by further criminalizing homelessness, poverty and substance misuse, and attacking charitable bail funds, will only drive our communities deeper into trouble, ensnaring countless poor and sick Kentuckians within an unrelenting revolving door of justice-system involvement that will only destabilize them in the future.
One thing we should infer from the governor’s rejection of this bill is that the Commonwealth would be far better served pursuing prevention-first approaches to public safety by investing in the sorts of services that prevent justice-system involvement in the first place: services like community-based drug treatment, supportive housing, jobs programs, and good schools, to name a few.
The governor’s actions today are a testament to the unassailable reserve of the countless community activists and advocates who protested this bill in the first place. The reasons behind community opposition to this bill are obvious – and were apparently heard loud-and-clear by the governor. We will now await the legislature’s response and hope that they will see the governor’s actions for what they are: a representation of the state’s refusal to follow the legislature down a misguided path leading only towards unnecessary incarceration and needless suffering.”
Image: flickr Kentucky National Guard Public Affairs Office CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
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