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| Bill Aimed at Kansas Prison Overcrowding |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 12/09/2002 |
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A joint legislative committee that oversees corrections plans to introduce a bill aimed at easing prison overcrowding by putting nonviolent drug users in a treatment program instead of lock up. The proposal is in response to the growing prison population in Kansas, which is bulging to 99 percent of capacity and is nearing 9,000. Officials say the upward trend is expected to continue for at least the next decade. And with the state in a budget crisis, no new prisons planned and the state's newly elected attorney general vowing to get even tougher with criminals, Kansas justice professionals are in a tough situation. So the Kansas Sentencing Commission is proposing the treatment program to lawmakers as the best way to open prison space without sacrificing public safety. Members of the joint committee say without the treatment program, they will propose legislation seeking millions to expand the state's El Dorado Correctional Facility. 'We're on a collision course with going over capacity,' said Sen. Pete Brungardt, R-Salina. 'It's not a choice to do nothing.' Some states facing similar problems have given inmates early releases. 'The last thing we want to see is a reduction in sentence lengths,' said Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison, vice chairman of the Kansas Sentencing Commission. The criminal justice professionals who make up the commission are required by law to provide alternatives to the Legislature when the number of inmates nears the prisons' capacity. The move toward treatment instead of incarceration for drug users is growing across the country. The Kansas proposal calls for a statewide mechanism for assessing and treating a limited number of drug offenders. Morrison said the proposal calls for a conservative approach. 'People who have shown a history of hurting other people or dealing drugs will not be eligible,' Morrison said. 'They don't deserve to be.' The commission is studying programs in other states and plans to present a report to the Legislature in January, said Barbara Tombs, executive director of the sentencing commission. |
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