Kentucky ICE Arrests Approach 5,000 Amid Spike From Local Law Enforcement
New data shows there have been nearly 5,000 ICE arrests in Kentucky since the beginning of the Trump administration, and...
Criminal Justice
‘Unlawful Camping’ Charges Increase in Second Year of House Bill 5
During the first year after House Bill (HB) 5 (2024) took effect, an average of more than one unhoused person per day was cited or arrested for “unlawful camping” in...
Kentucky Local Governments Have Spent Only 10% of Opioid Settlement Dollars Despite Continued Need
Between 2022 and 2038, Kentucky will receive more than a billion dollars in proceeds from several national opioid settlements with companies complicit in starting the opioid epidemic in the 1990s....
Model Kentucky Ordinance Establishing a County Opioid Abatement Advisory Council
This model ordinance, developed collaboratively with Vital Strategies, is intended as a tool for Kentucky counties to establish a county opioid abatement advisory council to advise and make recommendations on...
Amid Mounting Harms, Kentucky Is Ramping Up Anti-Immigrant Enforcement
More than a year in to the Trump presidency, the administration’s mass deportation effort has resulted in a historic high of 70,766 immigrants locked up in detention, and Immigration and...
ICE Arrests Are Surging in Kentucky as Local Law Enforcement Joins Troubling Mass Deportation Effort
Anti-immigration enforcement has ramped up since the inauguration in January, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arresting more than 1,000 people per day on average nationally and locking up nearly...
FBI Data Shows Violent Crime Dropped in Kentucky Last Year and Is Now Below Pre-Pandemic Levels
New FBI crime data shows violent crime in Kentucky dropped by 6.3% between 2023 and 2024 and is now 0.9% lower than it was in 2019 before a spike in...
One Year Of House Bill 5: Hundreds of Unhoused Kentuckians Have Been Cited for ‘Unlawful Camping’
One year after 2024’s House Bill (HB) 5 went into effect, the harms of the sweeping legislation that made Kentucky one of the first states to ban street camping are already...
The Hidden Web of Criminal Legal System Fines and Fees in Kentucky
Thousands of provisions in Kentucky state law, and untold local ordinances, make up a vast, hidden web of criminal legal system fines and fees that trap many people in a...
Children in the Balance: Kentucky Reforms Successfully Diverted More Kids from Detention, but Now Those Gains Are at Risk
Executive Summary In 2014, the Kentucky General Assembly passed Senate Bill (SB) 200 with the goal of reforming the state’s juvenile justice system. The bill accomplished many of its primary...