Kentucky.

House Republicans say one answer to violent crime is the Safer Kentucky Act, which was also discussed in committee today.

Kentucky Additions Jun Leffler has that story.

The foundation for our civilized society here in Kentucky is public safety, security and protection.

And our foundation is broken.

Jefferson County Republicans unveiled their crime bill back in September.

Lawmakers got a slightly revised version last night.

The cornerstone provision is a three strikes law.

Most of your traditional three strike laws have to do with any three felonies that can be stealing my phone.

This is three violent felonies.

Only violent felons count.

And if you commit three violent felonies, this will put you to the house for the rest of your life.

Some Democrats say this bill goes too far.

Involving a judicial discretion in terms of sentencing or just removing that entirely.

Second, we have sentencing credits that we that we are supposed to implement in terms of good behavior, in terms of education credits, valor credits.

This would remove any of those incentives for individuals to get credit because they're going to be there for life without parole.

The bill would increase the classification and penalties for all sorts of crimes carjacking, wanton endangerment, vandalism, attempted murder and drug dealing that results in a fatal overdose.

This poison is killing our people every day in Kentucky.

All right.

These are some of those faces right here.

And so we want someone that knowingly sells, fitting all this poison for profit motive and kill someone that they are charged with murder.

The bill also targets people sleeping on the streets.

The city of Louisville has already criminalized public camping.

This bill would make it illegal across the state and place restrictions on how to house people.

I've been working with people experiencing homelessness for more than a decade.

And what this bill says is that you can't provide permanent housing unless there's a treatment program as a condition.

And there's more than decades of research across the country and across the world that shows that housing first gets dangerous, drug addicted people off the street.

And then you can start working on those things.

But it's not a condition of starting your treatment and then getting housed.

It's getting housed and then starting your treatment.

And those things need to go in that order.

That will likely be up for debate come session.

And we look forward to vetting out those concerns and working with everyone again to ensure that we put forth the best possible version of this policy for the betterment of Kentucky.

Provisions to set up a Kentucky State Police post in Louisville and allow state law enforcement to use wiretapping have been axed from the legislation.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm June Leffler.

Thank you, June.

The full bill will be filed for consideration at the beginning of the 2024 legislative session.