Ky Official: Prisons Set to Run Out of Space by 2019

The state is seeing the effects of the national opioid epidemic. 

According to Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary John Tilley, state prisons will run out of space by 2019.

Due to increased drug crimes, he says, prisons are full and multiple county jails are over 100 percent capacity, and the inmate population is expected to grow by over four thousand in a decade.

This, possibly forcing thousands of non-violent offenders out of the cell by next May.

On the table – a new proposal by Governor Matt Bevin that would make it harder to be convicted of a felony.

If passed, Tilley believes it could eliminate nearly 80 percent of inmate population growth.