House Bill 5 oppresses the poor by criminalizing homelessness and allowing the use of force to dismantle homeless camps, like this one in Louisville in December 2022. It also restricts bail funds, which put the poor on equal footing with more affluent defendants. (Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images)
In the immortal words of Ronald Reagan during a debate with Jimmy Carter, there they go again.
For the past 50 years, every so often the media, law enforcement, prosecutors and government officials start screaming at the top of their lungs that “crime is rising,” “something must be done,” and the like. Then the legislature passes laws, the police start arresting more people, prosecutors start asking for more prison time, the Department of Corrections tries to accommodate a perpetually growing prison population, the cost goes up, and services for the people of Kentucky go down. Rinse and repeat.
And now, there they go again.
The source of my angst is the extremely unwise octopus of a bill, House Bill 5, with no fewer than 72 pages and 53 different sections, most of them creating a new crime or enhancing the penalties for an old crime. It is sponsored by 50 House members, one-half the members of the House. It passed Thursday night after one brief committee hearing. I doubt if most of the sponsors have read the bill, and guarantee that they do not understand its ramifications or unintended consequences. The unintended consequences will not be understood until the police start arresting, the prosecutors start charging, an already overcrowded corrections and jails system starts accepting new prisoners, and the bill to pay for this starts going up and up while other services get cut.