Priority Area 1: Engage and educate Kansas stakeholders on Justice Reinvestment policies and legislation to promote oversight and sustainability.
Update:
In October, CSG Justice Center staff drafted a one-page document to encourage judges to review the draft MOU and provide feedback; however, the implementation group decided the draft MOU will likely be posted for public comment on the judiciary website, which would give judges an opportunity to comment, so additional solicitation of judicial input is not necessary. CSG Justice Center staff developed a one-pager discussing the challenges in Kansas that prompted the need for an MOU to ensure that people are not actively supervised by more than one agency. The purpose of the one-pager was to assist in vetting the MOU with stakeholders.
Additionally, in October, CSG Justice Center staff met with the KSSC and KDOC to discuss the prison population increase and policy needs of KDOC to ensure that KSSC and KDOC needs are taken into account as CSG Justice Center staff prepare for a legislative presentation to the Joint Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice on JRI implementation progress.
Priority Area 2: Assist Kansas with monitoring progress, collecting data, and tracking outcomes associated with JRI policies.
Update:
In October, KDOC’s subaward request previously approved by BJA for $276,000 was reviewed by KDOC’s legal team and signed. CSG Justice Center staff trained the receiving agency (KDOC) and partners on how to fill out invoices, reimbursement schedules, and other necessary tasks.
The second subaward request for $218,280 was approved by BJA. This subaward request included further IT system upgrades for KDOC, the PRB, and OJA. KDOC received $90,000 to improve the effectiveness of and support upgrades to their Athena data system, the PRB received $37,280 to spend on equipment upgrades, and OJA received $91,000 to support upgrades to Tyler Supervision, a case management software system.
In continuation of data monitoring work, CSG Justice Center staff spoke to the KSSC to discuss data measures to understand the impacts of Senate Bill (SB) 123 (2021) substance use treatment diversion and a data use agreement.
Priority Area 3: Improve the community supervision system by creating efficiencies, consistency, coordination, and collaboration between OJA, KDOC, and Community Corrections entities
Update:
In October, the community supervision implementation group discussed conditions of supervision, ways in which a lack of standardized general conditions complicates dual supervision, special conditions of supervision, the status of the development of the draft MOU, the draft of the progress report form, and the potential of a pilot of the standardized conditions of supervision. The implementation group began discussing the need for coordinated training, quality assurance (QA), and continuous quality improvement (CQI) measures and the current challenges agencies face in implementing effective QA and CQI.
Priority Area 4: Implement standardized general conditions of supervision and utilize a risk, need, responsivity (RNR) framework to select special conditions of supervision.
Update:
In October, the supervision implementation group agreed to support the draft legislation for standardized general conditions of supervision; however, the group decided not to pilot standardized general conditions in several locations since legislation will likely be introduced in the next legislative session and a pilot could impede progress. Additionally, there were concerns that a pilot would conflict with current statute on conditions of supervision.
Priority Area 5: Engage with KDOC and KDADS to improve reentry and behavioral health services for people in the criminal justice system.
Update: There were no updates in October.
New Insights:
• Hope Cooper (Deputy Secretary of Juvenile and Adult Community-Based Services, KDOC) resigned on October 7, 2022. Hope was a valued member of KDOC and supported the use of evidence-based practices. Additionally, she was an active member of the KCJRC in 2020 and 2021 and helped develop JRI recommendations in Kansas. Marie McNeil will be assisting with covering Hope’s duties until a replacement can be hired.
• The chief justice along with four additional supreme court justices are up for re-election in November. Typically, supreme court justices do not have highly contested races for re-election. However, due to abortion access being protected in the Kansas Constitution, this year’s races are being highly politicized and contested.
Press Clips:
• ACLU of Kansas: Legislature needs to fix ‘endless probation’ - Kansas Reflector
• Kansas inmates got punished for drinking alcohol when the prison system was misusing tests
• NPR: Court alternatives that spare a criminal record cost you hundreds and put a price on justice
• The Hutchinson News: Reno County DA plans diversion program for first-time felony drug possession arrests
• The Hill: Abortion foes seek ouster of 5 Kansas Supreme Court justices
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