HB 5 will accelerate the revolving door of recidivism. It will sideline more Kentuckians from ever participating in the economy. (Getty Images)
FRANKFORT — A couple of demented provisions in House Republicans’ sweeping rewrite of Kentucky’s criminal code — jailing the homeless and unleashing vigilante justice on suspected shoplifters — are bad enough in themselves.
They also seem to be the shiny new objects distracting from other, far-reaching questions about House Bill 5 .
Kentuckians deserve answers, but the Republicans who control the legislature haven’t even started asking the questions, at least not publicly.
How many new prison beds would be needed for the inmate surge set off by HB 5? How many new prisons? Would the private prison industry be employed to relieve the strain?
Would prisons have to operate nursing homes due to the increase in geriatric inmates? How about the impacts on county governments? Would they have more pretrial defendants to house at the county’s expense while the new harsher penalties move convicted felons, paid for by the state, out of local jails into state prisons?