Included in 2024's Safer Kentucky Act was a provision that dramatically increased the minimum percentage of time certain violent felons had to serve on their sentences before being eligible for parole, upping the number from 20 percent to 85 percent.
Louisville Republican Rep. Jared Bauman was the leading voice for the reforms.
"Crime is something that directly impacts every single Kentuckian and it is with a deep sense of purpose and value that we put forward the critical reforms in the Safer Kentucky Act," he said during the initial announcement of the reform package.
The question now is whether the parole provision should apply to inmates who were convicted before the changes took place, as the Department of Corrections has interpreted the law.
The Lexington Herald-Leader reports 400 inmates have joined a class action suit arguing the retroactive application of the law is unfair, pitting them against the state.
The Department of Corrections says the law did not specify whether the new parole rules would apply to offenses dating before the passage of the Safer Kentucky Act, but was clear about the sentences themselves, the key factor the department cites in its across-the-board enforcement.
The state's high court is slated to hear the case on October 15th.