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American Morning

Tough Times in the Bluegrass State

Aired January 10, 2003 - 07:22   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These are tough times in the Bluegrass State. Kentucky Governor Paul Patton's plan to ease the state's budget deficit by opening the prisons and releasing hundreds of inmates early has given rise to a certain amount of discussion there and elsewhere. And now, don't you know, one of these ex-cons has gone right out and apparently robbed a couple of banks within days of being let out of jail.
Governor Patton is with us this morning from Frankfurt, Kentucky.

We are delighted to have you with us, Governor.

This has to be your worst nightmare. The critics are all saying you can't let these guys out of jail, they'll just go out and commit more crimes. And within five days, you've got a guy charged with robbing a couple of banks.

Do you plan to reconsider this early release idea in light of what's happened here?

GOV. PAUL PATTON (D), KENTUCKY: Well, let's put everything in perspective. During my administration, we have strengthened our criminal justice system and increased spending on it 75 percent.

CAFFERTY: OK.

PATTON: And it's worked. Crime in Kentucky is down 10 percent. But our prison population is more than we can hold with a budget crisis that we have now. Now, 30 about percent...

CAFFERTY: Does that mean you're not going to reconsider the idea? I mean are you going to continue to release these people early?

PATTON: That is correct, because about 30 percent of these people will commit another crime anyway, whenever they get out.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

PATTON: On average, we were letting these people out 80 days early so they committed the crime 80 days earlier than they ordinarily would have. But people that get out of prison do commit more crimes. We have a...

CAFFERTY: Governor...

PATTON: ... $500 million shortfall in Kentucky and I have to live within my means. CAFFERTY: I understand that. And states all around the country are facing budget deficits. But so far Kentucky is the only one that I'm aware of that's releasing convicted felons early in an effort to save money. The other 49 states haven't come up with this idea as yet.

PATTON: Well, I would certainly rather let felons out of jails than take teachers out of classrooms. And those are the kinds of choices that Kentucky is facing and we're not nearly as bad off as some other states.

CAFFERTY: Help me out with some economics here. You've got a $500 million plus budget deficit. The projected savings on releasing these inmates somewhere around $3 million. If a third of these inmates go on to commit other crimes, what is the cost of the investigation, the arrests, the trials, the hearings, the public defenders, the probation reports and the sentencing hearings of reprocessing one third of 500 plus inmates back through the system again?

PATTON: It's going to be the same now as it will 80 days from now. Those same people are going to commit the same crimes whenever they're released, and, on average, these people were released 80 days early. But the, our prison budget is just dramatically -- our population is over what we have budgeted to pay for. We don't have the money.

CAFFERTY: What do you say to your citizens who say, you know, this makes me frightened? I'm afraid. The governor is letting these people go and I'm scared because of that.

PATTON: Well, we have serious problems and we're going to have to be taking people off of Medicaid and we'll be cutting our schools. We'll be taking teachers out of the classroom if we don't do something. We've got to look at our revenue picture. We've cut taxes in Kentucky $500 million. We're going to have to reconsider that.

CAFFERTY: Reconsider cutting taxes. Does that mean you're going to possibly have to raise taxes...

PATTON: Yes.

CAFFERTY: ... in order to address the budget problems?

PATTON: We're going to start talking about ways that we can increase our revenue.

CAFFERTY: If you had a...

PATTON: Twenty-two states have already done that.

CAFFERTY: If you had it to do over again, would you have made the same decision or would you have considered, perhaps, other ways to enhance revenue, like raising taxes? Politically, this has to be a tremendous liability. Nobody, no voter any place thinks it's a great idea to put more criminals on the street. PATTON: Well, yes, we will be releasing more criminals probably later on in January. This is a crisis. Governors have to, they can't run a difficult. They have to live with the money that they have. And we're going to do that in Kentucky.

CAFFERTY: All right, sir, I appreciate you visiting with us this morning and discussing what has become a controversial issue.

Governor Paul Patton joining us from Lexington, Kentucky.

Thanks for being with us.

PATTON: Thank you, sir.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired January 10, 2003 - 07:22   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These are tough times in the Bluegrass State. Kentucky Governor Paul Patton's plan to ease the state's budget deficit by opening the prisons and releasing hundreds of inmates early has given rise to a certain amount of discussion there and elsewhere. And now, don't you know, one of these ex-cons has gone right out and apparently robbed a couple of banks within days of being let out of jail.
Governor Patton is with us this morning from Frankfurt, Kentucky.

We are delighted to have you with us, Governor.

This has to be your worst nightmare. The critics are all saying you can't let these guys out of jail, they'll just go out and commit more crimes. And within five days, you've got a guy charged with robbing a couple of banks.

Do you plan to reconsider this early release idea in light of what's happened here?

GOV. PAUL PATTON (D), KENTUCKY: Well, let's put everything in perspective. During my administration, we have strengthened our criminal justice system and increased spending on it 75 percent.

CAFFERTY: OK.

PATTON: And it's worked. Crime in Kentucky is down 10 percent. But our prison population is more than we can hold with a budget crisis that we have now. Now, 30 about percent...

CAFFERTY: Does that mean you're not going to reconsider the idea? I mean are you going to continue to release these people early?

PATTON: That is correct, because about 30 percent of these people will commit another crime anyway, whenever they get out.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

PATTON: On average, we were letting these people out 80 days early so they committed the crime 80 days earlier than they ordinarily would have. But people that get out of prison do commit more crimes. We have a...

CAFFERTY: Governor...

PATTON: ... $500 million shortfall in Kentucky and I have to live within my means. CAFFERTY: I understand that. And states all around the country are facing budget deficits. But so far Kentucky is the only one that I'm aware of that's releasing convicted felons early in an effort to save money. The other 49 states haven't come up with this idea as yet.

PATTON: Well, I would certainly rather let felons out of jails than take teachers out of classrooms. And those are the kinds of choices that Kentucky is facing and we're not nearly as bad off as some other states.

CAFFERTY: Help me out with some economics here. You've got a $500 million plus budget deficit. The projected savings on releasing these inmates somewhere around $3 million. If a third of these inmates go on to commit other crimes, what is the cost of the investigation, the arrests, the trials, the hearings, the public defenders, the probation reports and the sentencing hearings of reprocessing one third of 500 plus inmates back through the system again?

PATTON: It's going to be the same now as it will 80 days from now. Those same people are going to commit the same crimes whenever they're released, and, on average, these people were released 80 days early. But the, our prison budget is just dramatically -- our population is over what we have budgeted to pay for. We don't have the money.

CAFFERTY: What do you say to your citizens who say, you know, this makes me frightened? I'm afraid. The governor is letting these people go and I'm scared because of that.

PATTON: Well, we have serious problems and we're going to have to be taking people off of Medicaid and we'll be cutting our schools. We'll be taking teachers out of the classroom if we don't do something. We've got to look at our revenue picture. We've cut taxes in Kentucky $500 million. We're going to have to reconsider that.

CAFFERTY: Reconsider cutting taxes. Does that mean you're going to possibly have to raise taxes...

PATTON: Yes.

CAFFERTY: ... in order to address the budget problems?

PATTON: We're going to start talking about ways that we can increase our revenue.

CAFFERTY: If you had a...

PATTON: Twenty-two states have already done that.

CAFFERTY: If you had it to do over again, would you have made the same decision or would you have considered, perhaps, other ways to enhance revenue, like raising taxes? Politically, this has to be a tremendous liability. Nobody, no voter any place thinks it's a great idea to put more criminals on the street. PATTON: Well, yes, we will be releasing more criminals probably later on in January. This is a crisis. Governors have to, they can't run a difficult. They have to live with the money that they have. And we're going to do that in Kentucky.

CAFFERTY: All right, sir, I appreciate you visiting with us this morning and discussing what has become a controversial issue.

Governor Paul Patton joining us from Lexington, Kentucky.

Thanks for being with us.

PATTON: Thank you, sir.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com