Ky Chief Justice Warns Drug, Mental Health Courts Would Be Wiped Out By Budget Proposals

FRANKFORT — Kentucky judges and advocates issued a warning Thursday that, without more funding in the judicial branch budget, the state’s specialty courts could be closed.

Kentucky’s Administrative Office of the Courts said the General Assembly’s two-year budget, as it now stands, would underfund court system operations by $33 million.

Courts at risk are drug, mental health and veterans treatment courts, according to a Thursday news release from the Administrative Office of the Courts. Thursday was day 54 of the 60-day legislative session.

Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Debra Hembree Lambert said what lawmakers are proposing is only enough money to pay for judicial operations required by the state Constitution.

“The Judicial Branch already operates with a lean budget, with about 90% devoted to personnel and the basic costs required to keep courthouses open and functioning,” Lambert said in a statement.

“When cuts of this magnitude occur, there is simply no way to absorb them through small efficiencies or administrative changes,” Lambert said. “The only viable option we have is to eliminate programs that are not constitutionally required, including Drug, Mental Health and Veterans Treatment Courts. These programs change lives every day, but without adequate funding we cannot continue them.”

These specialty courts “provide treatment-focused supervision for people whose criminal behavior is closely tied to substance use disorders or serious mental illness,” according to the Administrative Office of the Courts. “Participants must complete intensive treatment programs, frequent drug testing and close court supervision designed to address the root causes of their offenses.”

The office said Thursday that the judicial branch budget proposed in the current version of  House Bill 504 “underfunds” court operations by about $14 million in the 2027 fiscal year and by nearly $19 million in the 2028 fiscal year. The Senate and House each have put forward versions of the two-year operating budgets for the state, and members are in negotiations now to agree on final versions.

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The Lantern asked for comment from  the Senate and House appropriations chairs.

“There are robust discussions around all three branch budgets,” Senate President Pro Tempore David Givens, R-Greensburg, told reporters Thursday. “I appreciate the role the judicial branch plays. I also appreciate them finding efficiencies within that system. They play a vital role, but they’ve got to do it within the confines of what the taxpayers provide.”

The operations appropriation line has changed as the judicial branch budget proposal has made its way through the legislative process. Initially, the House proposed about $657 million a year, later upping it to $687 million for each of the two fiscal years. The Senate version included nearly $693 million for each. The version posted as “current” makes a $687 million annual appropriation.

‘Turned my life around’

A graduate of drug court who now works for the Administrative Office of the Courts told the Lantern that without it she would still be in prison — “if I was still alive.”

Laura Crawford said she was facing a 25-year sentence in 2013 before getting into a drug court program in Breckinridge County.

“I went in scared to death, terrified. I was living a life in full active addiction. I was addicted to opioids. I was also addicted to methamphetamines,” Crawford said. “I thought I had to have those things to survive. I looked at myself and thought of myself as less than other people.”

Crawford, of Brandenburg, said she was required to go through a 12-step program, get a job, keep a journal, take classes, learn about addiction triggers and more during drug court, all part of a rigorous process that helped her recover.

All those drug court requirements “taught me how to be accountable,” she said. She took the lessons she learned and helped others in their recovery journeys, she said.

Crawford graduated drug court in 2016 and now works as a trainer who teaches specialty court staff about best practices.

“What drug court did for me completely turned my life around,” she said. “My son had a mom who was not only a mom that was there just … because I was a biological mother, but was able to be there, physically, mentally, emotionally, all of the things, and could support him to be the person that he wanted to be.”

‘They would have to go to jail.’

Circuit Judge Kathryn H. Gabhart said losing drug courts would increase prison populations.

Gabhart, a judge in the 14th judicial district made up of Bourbon, Scott and Woodford counties, presides over both drug and mental health courts. Many participants who go through these specialty court programs exceed what is expected of them, she told the Lantern.

“We see not only individuals stop violating the law; stop using drugs,” Gabhart said. “We see individuals becoming stable on medications. They start paying child support. They start supporting their family. They pay off all their fines and restitution. They pay back the victims of their crimes. They get jobs.”

Without these courts, she said, more people will have to serve sentences behind bars, a more expensive undertaking than specialty courts in a state where “our jails are already overrun.”

“If we as judges don’t have the option of placing someone into drug court or mental health court or veterans treatment court, the only alternative for — again, these are high risk, high needs individuals — is to serve their sentence,” Gabhart said. “They’ve shown they cannot be managed on probation. Our programs are more restrictive than probation and parole, so they would have to serve their time. They would have to go to jail.”

‘Measurable, life-changing outcomes’

According to the courts’ news release, Kentucky’s specialty court programs “have produced measurable, life-changing outcomes for thousands of participants.” Those outcomes include, as of August 2025:

• 5,110 participants got jobs.
• 555 participants “achieved educational goals.”
• 1,621 “improved their housing stability.”
• The programs also “supported the birth of 404 drug-free babies.”

Drug courts are in all of Kentucky’s 120 counties, according to the Administrative Office of the Courts, and have about 2,500 “active participants who are considered high risk and high need due to substance use disorders.”

Mental Health Courts are in 17 counties and have 270 participants who have “serious mental illness or co-occurring substance use disorders.” Veterans Treatment Courts are in eight counties and have 92 participants.

This story from The Kentucky Lantern, a statewide news agency may be updated.