FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky lawmakers have filed a bill known as the Safer Kentucky Act to combat violent crime.
The legislation would increase the penalty for drive-by shooters, allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty or life in prison for the murder of a first responder, make carjacking a crime, increase vandalism penalties and increase penalties for people who are convicted of attempted murder.
"The name of the title of the bill says it all — a safer Kentucky," said state Rep. Mike Clines (R-Alexandria).
This is the first bill Clines, who has been a state representative for one year, is co-sponsoring.
Kenton County Prosecutor Rob Sanders said the bill attempts to fix issues with Kentucky law, like expanding the current definition of a violent crime and the number of offenses that are included. He said the changes are desperately needed, pointing to a case in Independence just this week.
"We had an individual shooting up his own house, almost shot his own wife and children, put a can of gasoline in the stove and turned the stove on trying to blow up the entire house up," Sanders said. "Under Kentucky law, because he didn’t hit them with any of the bullets and he didn’t actually kill them when he tried to blow the house up, it’s a non-violent crime."
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The bill would also implement a "three strikes law" for violent felony offenders.
"If you have three of those, you’re going to jail and you’re never getting out," Clines said.
Kunga Njuguna, policy strategist with the ACLU of Kentucky, said the "three strikes law" won’t work.
"I think the whole bill is problematic for the most part," Njuguna said. "We know that is a failed policy from the 90s. Other states have done that way back when and what studies have proved is that crime wasn’t reduced."
Njuguna said he believes the bill won’t make the state safer.
"If we want a safe community, creating new crimes and enhancing penalties isn’t the answer," Njuguna said. "What makes us safe is investing in communities and people and education, housing, transportation."
Sanders disagrees.
"When someone is a violent offender, under this bill they will have to serve 85% of their sentence’s worth. Right now, many of those offenders are only serving 20% of their sentence," he said.
However, there are some things in the bill Sanders would like to see changed.
"I would like to see us tweak, again, those definitions of violent offenses just a little bit because I think there are some C- and D-felonies that should be included in the definition of violent offense," he said.
Njuguna said he also takes issue with the idea of banning people who are homeless from sleeping out on the streets. The bill would ban unlawful camping on public or private streets, sidewalks, parks and under a bridge or overpass. It would also include sleeping near businesses, homes or public buildings.
"We’re seeing the criminalization of poverty, people who have nowhere else to go and we’re going to be arresting them for simply sleeping outside. That’s not right. We should be investing in affordable housing," he said.
Clines said the bill won’t make homelessness a crime.
"The bill does give the local government the authority to designate an area for the homeless and, you know, provide sanitary requirements of water and restrooms," he said.
The representative said if the bill is passed it will impact people in different ways. Some parts of the state, he said, won’t notice a difference. Others will feel its impact on the first day.
The one thing Njuguna liked about the bill is that it would provide identification cards to people who leave jail or prison.
"Reentering into society, there are a lot of barriers and one of the easiest ones to remove is an ID," he said. "An ID is really the gateway back into society and so we support that and we hope to put some dollars behind it to make sure that actually happens."
The bill was introduced Tuesday and will head to committee.
