March 20, 2007 01:51 PM
By Mark Schnyder
Courier Journal
(LOUISVILLE) -- A lot of criminals end up breaking the law repeatedly, going in and out of jail their entire lives. Now an organization made up of area church congregations is calling on Kentucky to stop the revolving door at state prisons. WAVE 3 Investigator Mark Schnyder has more.
It was a Monday night sermon where the participants hope passion can solve a problem.
"Me and my colleagues in the ministry are tired of burying young people, victims of drug murders -- we're going to do something about it," said the Rev. Elvyn Hamilton to a crowd of about 700 CLOUT (Citizens of Louisville Organized and United Together) members at the 4th Avenue United Methodist Church Monday night.
In response, the crowd chanted: "Stop the revolving door! Stop the revolving door!"
Hundreds of people from more than a dozen metro area churches chanted CLOUT's mantra. Meanwhile, Louisville residents, organized and united together, put some of the state justice system's heaviest hitters on the spot.
"Do you agree we have a problem with the revolving door?" Bishop Walter Jones asked Kentucky Department of Corrections Commissioner John Rees.
His response: "yes."
Bishop Walter Jones called on Rees and State Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph Lambert to commit to doing more to treat people going through the system with drug problems so they don't keep coming back. But amid the calls for more programs, treatment centers and drug courts, a revelation: it's already happening.
In the last nine years in Kentucky the number of drug courts -- which put offenders on a road to recovery -- have grown from 12 to 60.
"Drug courts have grown dramatically," Justice Lambert said. "Now every person who enters drug court does not leave successfully, there are failures. But the failures are vastly outweighed by the successes."
Justice Lambert and Commissioner Rees did not agree to every request CLOUT called for. Rees would not commit to creating a new training program for drug and alcohol addiction for the probation and paroles office, and Justice Lambert couldn't promise a licensed treatment component in Jefferson County's drug court program.
But CLOUT leaders say they got some things done.
The director of Metro Corrections was also invited to take the heat, but he did not attend. CLOUT wants him to develop a new drug treatment program for jail inmates.
Online Reporter: Mark Schnyder
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