During the most recent meeting of the Juvenile Justice Oversight Council, a group to watch over the implementation of SB200 and to study and debate additional juvenile justice policies, we were shown some jarring numbers from DJJ....
A few weeks ago I wrote about the broader policy work on felony expungement. That work has continued to develop over the course of the 2016 session and reached a fever pitch on March 17th when, for the first time, such a bill was heard before a Senate committee....
During the course of the session there are bills that cover different topics that orbit around us. Some of these bills orbit at different speeds and some have more gravitational pull than others, drawing more support from legislators or conversely drawing additional ire from them.
Being a successful legislator requires patience and persistence. Issues arise that call for a bit of both, or quite a lot of one or the other. Failure to exercise these often results in legislative failure and frustration. In my time in the Senate I have seen firsthand how lengthy the deliberative legislative process can be. Many times the “deliberative” process is less deliberative and more “political shenanigans” than I’d like to deal with, but you press on. Important work must be done. Passing a law to create dating violence protections in Kentucky was a work still undone when I arrived in 2013, but not anymore....
