This bill makes dozens of changes to Kentucky’s criminal justice statutes, and several of those changes constitute meaningful fines and fees reform. The bill works in conjunction with Kentucky’s “sliding scale of indigency” to define indigence, prohibits incarceration for nonpayment of fines and fees, and builds out sentencing alternatives for defendants who are unable to immediately pay their fines and fees.
You can read the full text of SB 120 here.
Key Provisions
- Amends Kentucky Revised Statute 453.190 “to define a ‘poor person’ as one who has an income at or below 100% on the Kentucky Supreme Court’s sliding scale of indigency.”
- No person shall be imprisoned for nonpayment of fines or court costs unless the failure to pay was willful and not due to an inability to pay.
- Courts may establish payment plans for defendants.
- The daily credit toward fines and fees while incarcerated for nonpayment is increased from $50 per day to $100 per day if the defendant works at a community service or community labor program while incarcerated (but no credit can be applied toward restitution or child support).
Primary sponsor(s): Whitney Westerfield
Bill number: SB 120
Status: Enacted