LEXINGTON, Ky. — Some Kentucky lawmakers say they plan to end a 15-year-old program that has released thousands of state prison inmates onto parole supervision six months before their incarceration is scheduled to end so the inmates can be monitored while reentering the community.

The lawmakers are targeting “mandatory reentry supervision” in reaction to the controversial case of Ronald Exantus, who killed 6-year-old Logan Tipton in his Versailles home in 2015 but was let out of prison last October after serving less than half of his 20-year sentence.

Exantus was arrested in Florida 12 days later for violating the terms of his release by failing to register as a convicted felon. The Parole Board then revoked his mandatory reentry supervision.

Something important will be lost if the reentry program is repealed because of one notorious case, or even a few, said Scott West, who was Kentucky’s deputy public advocate when the legislature created the program in 2011.

“The argument for this program was that when inmates were getting out, if they weren’t on parole, then there was no one supervising them, there was no support for them, and there was a high recidivism rate because they didn’t know how to readjust back into society,” said West, now a private attorney in Richmond and lobbyist for the Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

“As an allegory,” West said, “think of Red in ‘The Shawshank Redemption,’ how when he gets released from prison after all those years he doesn’t really fit well into society anymore because he’s been so institutionalized. So the idea was, OK, for six months after they’re released, why can’t we have them on supervision instead of turning them loose to fend for themselves?”

Mandatory reentry supervision is reserved for inmates who are denied “discretionary parole” by the state Parole Board after it reviews prisoners’ applications and considers their records.

Exantus, who was denied discretionary parole, exited prison early on a combination of mandatory reentry supervision and credit for good behavior and participation in educational and work programs. He also served more than two years in jail awaiting trial; that was credited toward his prison time.

Exantus’ sentence was relatively short in the first place because a Fayette County jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity on a murder charge in Logan’s stabbing death, absolving him of criminal responsibility, but guilty of second- and fourth-degree assault in his attack on other family members in the Tipton home.

The highly unusual verdict was appealed to the Kentucky Supreme Court, which upheld it.

Lawmaker wants changes

A legislative report in 2019 put the number of former inmates then on mandatory reentry supervision at 2,287, or 5% of the total probation and parole population. The discretionary parole population was 7,685, indicating that it was more typical.

Exantus’ early release was a clear violation of public safety, but he’s not the only inmate unwisely to be freed by mandatory reentry supervision, said state Rep. TJ Roberts, R-Burlington. Roberts said he’s found other examples in Bowling Green and Louisville involving violent offenders that also disturb him.

Roberts said he plans to co-sponsor a bill during this year’s legislative session ending mandatory reentry supervision, sometimes called MRS, and other parts of Kentucky law that shorten prison sentences.

“MRS is causing problems across the commonwealth,” Roberts said.

“One reason I think MRS is a big deal is that it results in a release even if a parole board unanimously says that release should not happen,” he said. “Generally speaking, by the way, I’m typically pretty critical of parole boards. But I will say that the Parole Board made the right decision when they unanimously said Ronald Exantus should not be released.”

Additionally, Roberts said, his bill will tighten the language in Kentucky’s insanity defense to prevent future verdicts like the one seen in Woodford County.

It’s nonsensical for a defendant to be found insane for one part of a criminal act but sane moments later, as Exantus was, Roberts said. Also, given the insanity finding, why wasn’t Exantus sent to a psychiatric institution instead of back onto the streets once his prison sentence ended, the lawmaker asked.

“That’s one of the things that outrages me, almost as much as the split verdict in the Exantus case,” Roberts said.

Roberts’ might not be the only bill that takes aim at mandatory reentry supervision this session. On Wednesday, state Sen. Brandon Storm, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, filed Senate Bill 48, which would set new limits on the program without repealing it.

Under Storm’s bill, inmates wouldn’t qualify if they had two or more violent offenses on their records or if they’ve previously been returned to prison for violating the terms of an early release.

Past reform efforts

If this year’s legislature ends mandatory reentry supervision, it will be a stark reversal from the 2011 General Assembly, which passed the measure with bipartisan, near-unanimous support as part of House Bill 463, the sprawling 150-page Public Safety and Offender Accountability Act.

Fifteen years ago, lawmakers said they were trying to relieve dangerous, expensive prison overcrowding with criminal-justice reform policies that saved the limited bed space available behind bars for violent offenders.

At that time, one-fourth of the state’s nearly 21,000 inmates were serving time for drug offenses. The Corrections Department budget had swollen to $460 million a year, up 200% over the previous 20 years.

Two of the reform law’s many provisions played a role in Exantus’ early release from prison and have become controversial as a result.

One of them is more generous time-served credits, shortening sentences for inmates who complete educational, treatment and vocational programs offered inside the prison.

“Someone who is in prison eventually is going to get out,” West said. “You need to teach them to be successful while they’re in, and you need to incentivize them to do the things that will help them succeed. So — education credits, work credits, you know, different type of credits. And when they do get out, now they have something they can fall back on.”

The other provision is mandatory reentry supervision.

Here’s how MRS works: Inmates who are denied discretionary parole by the Parole Board are still monitored by parole officers after their eventual release under mandatory reentry supervision.

If they violate the terms of their supervision, such as failing to get a job, failing to register as a parolee at their new home address or being arrested, they can be sent back to prison.

Such revocations aren’t uncommon. A 2022 report by the Parole Board showed 739 inmates incarcerated at that time for MRS violations.

Under MRS, inmates who were convicted of the most serious crimes — capital offenses and Class A felonies — stay in prison until their sentences end. After that, they get a one-year period of post-incarceration supervision tacked on.

But most felony offenders, including Exantus, are released from prison onto parole supervision six months before their incarceration is scheduled to end, with the parole filling in that six-month gap.

The state Division of Probation and Parole hired 150 more employees after the reform law was passed in order to keep up with the new demand for additional community supervision.

Study: Reentry program worked

Kentucky’s mandatory reentry supervision program was a success, according to a study three years later by the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts, which assisted Kentucky with its criminal-justice reform efforts.

The state needed 872 fewer prison beds a year and saved $29 million in corrections spending in the first 27 months after that part of the law took effect, the study’s authors said. With released inmates being supervised and offered transitional support by parole officers, recidivism dropped by 30%, they said.

“Mandatory reentry supervision is fulfilling its intended purpose,” the Pew study concluded. “In addition to Kentucky, other states — including, Kansas, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Carolina and West Virginia — also have recently enacted policies requiring offenders to serve a period of supervision after release.”

But the political mood has shifted in the General Assembly, especially after national outrage over Exantus’ early release reached as high as the White House.

“I think that in those 15 years, we tried blanket criminal-justice reform and realized that whenever it comes to crimes where victims are created, we need to contemplate the impact on public safety,” Roberts said. “That’s not an area where the justice system should be focused on just churning out the offenders.”

Exantus wasn’t a nonviolent criminal who made a few mistakes but could be rehabilitated into being “a better citizen” by getting a break, Roberts added. He broke into the home of a family he didn’t know, stabbed a boy to death and attacked other people, and then he pleaded insanity to avoid taking responsibility, Roberts said.

For criminals like Exantus, “MRS is just, in many ways, it’s a free handout, right?” Roberts said. “You committed this eligible offense, you’ve just been sitting — existing — in your jail cell, and all of a sudden you’re eligible for release.”

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