A group of lawmakers and advocates is making recommendations on how to improve Kentucky’s juvenile justice system.
The task force has worked for the past two years to address the number of low-level youth offenders who officials say cost tax payers millions of dollars while receiving preventative services too late.
Kentucky Justice Mary Noble serves on the task force. She says convincing lawmakers that more preventative action is needed won’t be a problem. But she says there could be issues with convincing lawmakers to support the recommendations that need more money.
“However one of the tasks that the task force took on was to see what you could do to reduce the fiscal impact. What can we do with existing resources? How can we re-purpose some of the things that we’re now doing.” –Mary Noble
The group’s recommendations will provide a blue-print for lawmakers who want to overhaul the juvenile justice code. There are 18 recommendations in total.