Kentucky Supreme Court to hear fight over parole change

What the Supreme Court will decide

The Kentucky Supreme Court is preparing to hear arguments over whether a major parole change in the 2024 Safer Kentucky Act can apply to people convicted before the law took effect. The law requires violent offenders to serve at least 85% of a sentence before becoming eligible for parole; the previous threshold was 20%.

More than 400 incarcerated people joined a class-action lawsuit challenging how the Department of Corrections applied the change. The law does not state whether its new threshold covers people convicted before it took effect.

The attorney general’s office, the Department of Corrections and attorneys representing the incarcerated people have filed written arguments. The court is scheduled to hear oral arguments later in October.

The arguments before the court

The incarcerated people argue that applying the 85% threshold to earlier convictions improperly moves their parole eligibility dates and can keep them imprisoned longer. Their attorneys want the justices to preserve a lower-court ruling that stopped the change from applying to people whose guilty pleas included 20% parole eligibility.

The lawsuit began with Toby Berry, who pleaded guilty to strangulation, unlawful imprisonment and promoting contraband before the law took effect. He was sentenced after its Aug. 13, 2024, effective date. The department changed his parole eligibility date from August 2025 to August 2031, and his attorneys say the later date also affected access to programs and sentence credits.

Franklin County Judge Shepherd ruled in February that application of the increased threshold should be paused. The state wants the Supreme Court to reverse course, reject class-action status for the participating inmates and uphold the parole eligibility standard enacted by lawmakers. Parole eligibility allows consideration for release; it does not guarantee release.