Justice Center Offers Guidance to Kansas

At the start of the legislative session, the Kansas Sentencing Commission projected that unless policymakers acted, the prison population would grow by 26 percent over the next 10 years.

In response, the Kansas legislature, under the leadership of House Speaker Melvin Neufeld and Senate President Stephen Morris, convened a bipartisan task force, bringing in national experts and commissioning an exhaustive review and analysis of data about who’s admitted to prison, for how long, and what happens when they are released. 

Working closely with this bipartisan group of state policymakers through its Justice Reinvestment Initiative and with funding support from The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Public Safety Performance Project and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, The Council of State Governments Justice Center helped Kansas policymakers design strategies to manage the growth of the prison population, save the state money and increase public safety. 

On May 1, 2007, the Kansas House and Senate enacted those measures, overwhelmingly passing Senate Bill 14, which establishes a community corrections grant program to reduce revocation rates by 20 percent, provides a 60 day credit for successful program completion, and increases earned time for nonviolent offenders to 20 percent.  The legislature has already appropriated $4.4 million to support the provisions of Senate Bill 14.  The bill is now on Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’s  desk for her consideration.

To learn more about the technical assistance provided to Kansas policymakers by the Justice Center, please visit the center's Web site.