Kentucky is a “throw away the key” state spending over a Billion Dollars a year on incarceration and our criminal justice system. For 234 years (from 1792 to 2026) our governors have had unlimited pardon power to give a small amount of relief to our broken mass incarceration system. Kentucky already incarcerates (& or has under supervision) more of its citizens/ capita than 45 other states and nearly all other countries.
Our family benefited from a late pardon after an election seven years ago. If our loved one was still behind bars, he would not even see our broken parole board for another full year. Further incarceration would have been a waste of human capital and money, although the “throw away key’ crowd could care less.