Since taking office in December 2019, the Beshear-Coleman administration's top priority has been the safety and security of Kentuckians at home, work, school and on the road. Working collaboratively across state government, the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, at the direction of Gov. Beshear, has taken steps to enhance public safety in each of Kentucky's communities. This work has led to four straight years in declines in overdose deaths, record low recidivism rates, and decreases in serious crime in five of six years since the Governor took office. Team Kentucky is committed to continuing this work and building on its accomplishments, which include:
- Meade, Pike and Wolfe Counties were certified as Recovery Ready Communities in July 2026. This increased the number of certified counties to 42 and the number of Kentuckians guaranteed access to addiction treatment to more than 2.2 million.
- Clark, Johnson, Madison and Mason Counties were certified as Recovery Ready in March 2026.
- Estill, Henderson, Lewis and Warren Counties were certified as Recovery Ready in November 2025.
- Boyd, Carter, Clay, Greenup, Letcher and Owsley were certified as Recovery Ready in August 2025.
- Bell, LaRue, Marion and Washington Counties were certified as Recovery Ready in May 2025.
- Floyd, Knott and Lawrence Counties were certified as Recovery Ready in December 2024.
- Calloway, Daviess, Fayette and Pulaski Counties were certified as Recovery Ready in September 2024.
- Breathitt, Jessamine, Lee and Nelson Counties were certified as Recovery Ready in July 2024.
- Hardin, McCracken and Scott Counties were certified as Recovery Ready in February 2024.
- Boone, Campbell, Grant, Kenton, Perry and Woodford Counties were certified as Recovery Ready in September 2023.
- Boyle County was certified as Recovery Ready in May 2023.
- The Recovery Ready Communities program was created when Gov. Beshear signed House Bill 7 in 2021. The bill created the Recovery Ready Communities Advisory Council to develop criteria and certify counties. Criteria was finalized and applications opened in January 2023.
- In July 2026, Team Kentucky launched an interactive data dashboard for the public to more easily view data; compare statewide statistics by county and area development district; and gather specific information on offenders, domestic violence shelters and support services, as well as law enforcement-related outcomes. The dashboard includes data from each of Kentucky's annual domestic violence data reports.
- The dashboards were released along with the 2025 Domestic Violence Data Report, which shows that levels of domestic violence remained stable compared to the year before. Additionally, there was an increase in filings of electronic JC-3 forms, which are completed upon responding to a report of domestic violence, dating violence or abuse to track incidents and arrests and assist victims with filing for emergency protective orders. The report also shows a 4.23% increase in arrests made related to domestic violence and a slight decrease in the number of individuals who utilized services provided by ZeroV, the state's coalition of domestic violence shelters.
- Team Kentucky released the 2022 Domestic Violence Data Report in 2023 after Gov. Beshear signed Senate Bill 271 the prior year. The 2023 and 2024 reports were released in subsequent years.
- Since Dec. 9, 2026, more than 2,800 officers have graduated from basic training from one of the commonwealth's basic training academies. This has increased the number of law enforcement officers protecting the commonwealth to more than 9,000.
- In June 2026, Gov. Beshear released the 2025 Crime in Kentucky Report, which showed reports of serious crime decreased for the second year in a row. From 2024 to 2025, reports of serious crime decreased by 8.14%. This was the fifth decrease reported since the Beshear-Coleman administration took office.
- In June 2026, Team Kentucky increased starting salaries for Kentucky State Police troopers to $71,000 annually.
- In 2022, Gov. Beshear secured a $15,000 raise for every Kentucky State Police trooper and increased starting pay for sworn officers from $40,000 to $55,000 annually when he signed House Bill 259. This was the largest single pay raise in Kentucky State Police history.
- In April 2026, Gov. Beshear released the 2025 Overdose Fatality Report, which showed a 22.9% decrease in overdose deaths from 2024 to 2025. This was the fourth straight year that overdose deaths decreased in the commonwealth.
- The Governor ceremonially signed House Bill 5 in April 2026 to provide the framework to create Kentucky's first reentry campus, focused on increasing public safety and boosting the state's workforce. The reentry campus will be operated by the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) on the grounds of Northpoint Training Center in Burgin. Once constructed, it will provide up to 400 inmates each year with targeted vocational technical education programs and intensive reentry services.
- In April 2026, Team Kentucky Broke Ground on the Department of Criminal Justice Training West: Gaines-Brown Campus in Madisonville. When completed, the facility will support two basic training recruit classes concurrently, with a total of four classes graduating from the facility each year with an average of 30 officers. The new campus, once operational, will bring 20 full-time jobs with an average salary of $60,000 to the Madisonville area.
- In February 2025, the Department of Criminal Justice Training partnered with the Madisonville Police Department to open a basic training academy at the agency's headquarters in an effort to reduce wait times, keep officers closer to home and ensure communities are safer by training more officers simultaneously at two different locations in the state for the first time in the history of the commonwealth. The first class graduated from this temporary location in Western Kentucky in June 2025.
- Gov. Beshear continues to support law enforcement and promote in-service training. The 2026-2028 state budget built on his previous work and raised the annual law enforcement training stipend to $4,746 for full-time officers by 2028 – another all-time high.
- At the beginning of his second term, the Governor proposed a $500 increase to the annual law enforcement training stipend, but the General Assembly chose to provide a combined $262 increase over two years. At the time, this was an all-time high.
- For three years, Team Kentucky has requested funding from the General Assembly to construct a high acuity mental health facility for juveniles in Department of Juvenile Justice care. The General Assembly has failed to fund this request for each of the last three years. In 2026, the General Assembly provided a requirement in the state budget for the department to release a request for information regarding the facility.
- In April 2026, Gov. Beshear announced that, through federal Medicaid funding, eligible adults and juveniles leaving Department of Corrections or Department of Juvenile Justice custody will receive continued access to physical and mental health care and addiction services for up to a year after release from state custody.
- In February 2026, Gov. Beshear announced that, in 2025, recidivism rates declined for the second year in a row. From 2024 to 2025, recidivism rates dropped 0.49%. The low recidivism rate means nearly 70% of those released from state prison have not returned.
- In December 2025, Gov. Beshear joined the Kentucky State Police and first responders in Mayfield to bring local agencies onto the new Kentucky State Police radio system. In his 2026-2028 executive budget proposal, Gov. Beshear requested funding to finish the project and ensure statewide coverage. The budget passed by the General Assembly did not provide the funding needed.
- In November 2025, Team Kentucky opened the state's first licensed cosmetology school inside a correctional facility at the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women. Selected inmates within the facility receive cosmetology certifications that prepare them to get good-paying jobs upon release.
- The Governor announced the program in October 2024, sharing with Kentuckians that, once launched, female inmates would be able to complete a Kentucky Board of Cosmetology-approved course of study from qualified instructors while incarcerated. Upon completing the required 1,500 hours of instruction, inmates will be eligible to take the cosmetology examination. Upon successfully passing the practical and written exams, an individual will be a licensed cosmetologist and ready to obtain employment upon release.
- In September 2025, Gov. Beshear announced that in less than a year, Team Kentucky added 14 different technical education courses in Department of Corrections prisons across the commonwealth, and that by the end of the year, 26 courses would be available for inmates to prepare for employment upon release.
- The Department of Corrections currently offers a total of 35 technical education courses across the commonwealth. So far, more than 1,700 inmates have completed at least one course.
- In September 2025, Gov. Beshear signed two emergency regulations to update Department of Juvenile Justice restrictive housing policies to prioritize the safety and mental health of juveniles. The regulations mandate department leadership reviews of the use of restrictive housing, approving time limits and requires all department staff who interact with youth to be trained in the new regulation.
- In September 2025, Team Kentucky broke ground on a new, state-of-the-art Drivers' Skills Pad at the agency's training academy in Frankfort. When completed, the $2.7 million project will provide troopers, officers and cadets with a facility dedicated to safely practice and refine advanced driving techniques.
- In August 2025, Gov. Beshear announced that 1,315 Kentucky public schools are following statutory safety requirements required by the School Safety and Resiliency Act and that the number of school resource officers protecting schools has increased more than 100% since he took office.
- In 2022, the Governor signed House Bill 63, requiring every Kentucky public school campus to employ a school resource officer.
- In July 2025, the Department of Juvenile Justice fully implemented Handle with Care, a crisis intervention system that adapts to the unique needs of every juvenile in care. The system is primarily used in juvenile detention centers, emphasizing de-escalation and the mental health of juveniles. Every staff member who interacts with youth regularly has received Handle with Care training, and new employes receive the training at the Training Academy.
- In April 2025, Gov. Beshear created the Team Kentucky Office of Reentry Services to continue the important work of supporting second chances and to help maximize, concentrate and better coordinate services and resources across state government.
- In April 2025, Gov. Beshear broke ground on the Jody Cash Multipurpose Training Facility at the Department of Criminal Justice Training in Richmond. The facility, named in honor of fallen officer Jody Cash, is a 42,794-square-foot facility with a 50-yard, 30-lane firing range designed for officers to learn intensive and specialized training that will support training all of Kentucky's law enforcement agencies.
- Renovations on the Jefferson County Youth Detention Center in Downtown Louisville began in April 2025 after the Department of Juvenile Justice received the property from Louisville Metro Government. The facility is currently projected to open in the spring of 2027 and once completed will have 64 beds and will be used to house high-level male offenders.
- The Governor signed House Bill 3 in 2023 and House Bill 6 in 2024 to direct the Department of Juvenile Justice to renovate the facility and appropriated funding in required phases.
- In March 2025, Gov. Beshear signed Senate Bill 22, allowing inmates the opportunity to take the barbering test to obtain their license while incarcerated and secure a job upon release.
- In February 2025, Gov. Beshear announced that each of Kentucky's 14 state prisons have established its own reentry center to deliver focused life-skills training designed to prepare inmates for success upon release.
- In October 2024, Gov. Beshear signed an executive order creating the Governor's Council of Second Chance Employers. The council of 11 members representing industries and companies that hire and support second chance talent advocates for laws, investments and attitudes that improve reentry outcomes and increase public safety while identifying best practices in fair chance hiring and educating employers, employees and local communities on the benefits of second chance hiring.
- Renovations on the Jefferson County Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Lyndon began in September 2024 to expand the facility's capacity to safely and securely house juveniles who have been ordered to secure detention. Currently, the facility is expected to reopen in fall 2026 and will have 34 beds.
- In June 2024, the Beshear-Coleman administration provided salary increases for all Department of Criminal Justice Training law enforcement training instructors. Instructors received raises that increased salaries up to nearly $71,000 annually for experienced instructors.
- In April 2024, Team Kentucky launched SecondChance.ky.gov, a website to connect Kentuckians overcoming addiction or leaving incarceration to resources that can help them find a job, get an education and support their continued recovery.
- In 2024, at the recommendation of Gov. Beshear, the General Assembly provided $21 million in funding for renovation of the Civic Center at Northern Kentucky University to reopen the Northern Kentucky Medical Examiner's Office and relocate the Kentucky State Police Northern Crime Lab. Construction is expected to begin in the summer of 2026.
- In September 2023, Gov. Beshear joined with the Kentucky State Building and Construction Trades Council to launch the Hobs on Day One initiative, which aims to help released inmates have a job when they leave incarceration.
- In June 2023, Gov. Beshear announced that the Department of Corrections partnered with Simmons College of Kentucky to begin offering college classes at the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women, Northpoint Training Center, and Luther Luckett Correctional Complex.
- In April 2023, Team Kentucky began construction on a new medical prison on the campus of Blackburn Correctional Complex in Lexington. The project is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2026.
- In March 2023, Gov. Beshear signed Senate Bill 162, which appropriated more than $25 million to the Department of Juvenile Justice for staff salaries, facility security upgrades, transportation costs and enhances programming. The bill also provided the Department of Corrections with $30 million in funding to increase new and current correctional officer salaries to a minimum of $50,000 annually.
- In February 2023, Gov. Beshear raised Department of Juvenile Justice youth worker salaries to $50,000 and reclassified them as correctional officers to provide additional benefits and safety.
- In December 2022, the Governor began much-needed improvements to Kentucky's juvenile justice system. For the first time in state history, a female-only juvenile detention center was opened and male juveniles were separated by security level based on the severity of their offense.
- In November 2022, the Department of Corrections launched a Prison-to-Work Pipeline and a Job Readiness Simulation to prepare inmates to get a job after release and to connect them directly with employers for interviews prior to release so they can have a job waiting for them upon release.
- In November 2022, Team Kentucky broke ground on an expansion to Little Sandy Correctional Complex. The primary goal of the expansion is to transition inmates from the Kentucky State Reformatory in LaGrange in the first steps toward closing the LaGrange facility. Upon completion, Little Sandy Correctional Complex will house 1,882 male inmates, making it the second-largest prison in the commonwealth.
- In June 2022, Gov. Beshear announced the Military to Law Enforcement Program to allow local law enforcement agencies in the commonwealth to hire active service members within all U.S. military branches during their last 180 days of service. Upon being contracted by a law enforcement agency, the military member will continue to receive their pay and benefits from the U.S. Military while they undergo law enforcement training at the Department of Criminal Justice Training.
- In April 2022, Team Kentucky launched a statewide project that provides transportation to former inmates so they can get to addiction treatment, job interviews, education and employment.
- The 2022-2024 state budget passed by the General Assembly provided salary increases for positions in the Office of the State Medical Examiner including forensic autopsy technicians, medical examiners and the chief medical examiner.
- As the Governor recommended in January 2022, $12.2 million was included in the state budget for the Kentucky State Police to purchase body cameras, which is the first time in the commonwealth's history that funding has been allocated for this much-needed expense.
- In September 2021, Gov. Beshear launched the Kentucky Transformational Employment Program to help ensure workplace policies align with the mission of addiction response and create pathways for more Kentuckians to access evidence-based, compassionate treatment and recovery services.
- The Kentucky Transformational Employment Program was created following the Governor's signature on Senate Bill 192 in 2020.
- In April 2021, Gov. Beshear signed House Bill 497 to direct the Department of Corrections to issue certificates of employability to inmates who successfully complete programs while incarcerated.
- In February 2021, the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet joined with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet to provide inmates being released from state custody with state identification cards.
- On his third day in office in December 2019, Gov. Beshear restored voting rights to more than 140,000 Kentuckians who had paid their debt to society for nonviolent offenses. Since that day, the administration launched a website for individuals seeking to regain the right to vote to apply for civil rights restoration. To date, the Governor has restored voting rights to more than 200,000 Kentuckians.