State Senator Katara Herron says between 2020 and 2024, Kentucky jails reported more than 230 deaths.

She has a three pronged strategy that sets out to improve transparency and public reporting.

Create an external, independent review panel and study response models for mental health crises.

1st May of 2024 the 18th of May, my son Richard Graham went to Metro Jail.

On the 19th.

He was deceased from Aldine, but nobody checked on him and they missed two opportunities to check on him.

This issue is not about politics, it is about people.

It is about families who deserve clear answers.

It is about systems that should be strong enough to examine themselves honestly.

The first bill, Senate Bill 208, expands Kentucky's post modern requirements.

Right now, a mandatory examination is required when somebody is in custody.

However, deaths that occurred during the arrest process or while someone is being transported are not explicitly covered in the same way.

This bill ensures that if a person dies during the process of arrest or while enroute to incarceration, that examination is required.

The Office of Kentucky State Medical Examiners is notified.

The information is included in an annual statewide public report.

The second bill, Senate Bill 209, establishes an independent external Detainee Fatality Review Panel.

This panel will review deaths of individuals who are in the custody of law enforcement agencies, county jails, state correctional facilities, juvenile justice facilities, and contracted private facilities.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 110 creates a mental health alternative community response model task force.

Law enforcement officers are often asked to respond to behavioral health crises.

This task force will study alternative community response models that improve safety, reduce harm, support officers, and connect individuals to care.

This isn't just a local Jefferson County problem.

It's not a problem with city jails.

It's a problem in our county jails.

It's a problem in our state prisons.

And so I think that this package of bills that would ensure information and transparency are requirements when the unthinkable happens in one of these facilities, is the first step in the foundation for us to learn from things that are happening and make needed reforms.

Stand up for your children are your loved one.

Don't just let it go by.

Everybody needs to know when this happened and had happened.

Senator Herron says she also wants to ensure that law enforcement and staff in Kentucky jails and prisons have the resources they need to do their jobs and care for the incarcerated.