Priority Area 1: Engage and educate Kansas stakeholders on Justice Reinvestment policies and legislation to promote oversight and sustainability.
Update: In February, CSG Justice Center staff met with stakeholders from the Kansas Sentencing Commission (KSSC) and Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC). The goals of those meetings were to introduce new members of the JRI Phase II team, discuss ways to move the recommendations from the KCJRC forward, and to determine subaward funding areas.
During the meeting with KSSC, CSG Justice Center staff requested that they provide a venue for Kansas state leaders to monitor Justice Reinvestment implementation progress and provide oversight. As the Office of Justice Assistance (OJA), KDOC, and Community Corrections work on the recommendations outlined by the KCJRC, the KSSC will provide them with the space to share their progress, impact, and discuss next steps. Additionally, KSSC helped CSG Justice Center staff identify a targeted list of stakeholders and associations to engage as part of the team’s stakeholder education efforts.
Priority Area 2: Assist Kansas with monitoring progress, collecting data, and tracking outcomes associated with JRI policies.
Update: In February, CSG Justice Center staff met with KSSC and KDOC to discuss the subaward. The KSSC would like to direct subaward funding to create electronic forms for the use of presentence reports, journal entries, and revocation forms. This will allow for the analysis of information inputted into the electronic forms. Currently, forms are scanned into a database requiring the manual extraction of data needed for analysis.
In addition to efforts related to the subaward, CSG Justice Center staff are also working with agencies to determine measures for tracking progress and outcomes of the implementation of new KCJRC recommendations for 2021.
Priority Area 3: Improve the community supervision system by creating efficiencies, consistency, coordination, and collaboration between OJA, KDOC, and Community Corrections entities.
Update: In February, CSG Justice Center staff met with Hope Cooper (Deputy Secretary of Juvenile and Adult Community-Based Services) from KDOC to understand KDOC implementation priorities and how they view approaching the tasks outlined from the Reform Commission. Deputy Secretary Cooper emphasized the importance of a robust stakeholder engagement strategy as a crucial beginning step in implementation work. She also discussed who should be engaged in a collaborative workgroup to lead the implementation efforts for supervision system changes. As CSG Justice Center staff work to initiate this collaborative body, administrative changes related to any pending legislation are on hold until state agencies understand the status of bill drafts working their way through the legislative process.
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 February, Deputy Secretary Cooper shared with CSG Justice Center staff the desire to direct subaward funding to training of supervision officers. Currently, there are efforts in the state to train staff, but additional support would ensure that supervisor staff are provided with a different training and resources than the line staff that they oversee.
CSG Justice Center staff also connected with the Center for Effective Public Policy (CEPP), which is currently providing technical assistance to KDOC through the Innovations in Supervision grant. CSG Justice Center and CEPP staff discussed how to align technical assistance and training priorities. CEPP is also a Justice Reinvestment contractor, and staff discussed expanding CEPP’s evidence-based training and supervision practices work to cover all three supervision entities through the existing Justice Reinvestment contract.
Priority Area 5: Engage with KDOC and KDADS to improve reentry and behavioral health services for people in the criminal justice system.
Update: In February, KDADS began exploring the feasibility of Sequential Intercept Mapping (SIM) training for counties to examine behavioral health needs within their communities, which aligns with JRI recommendations made with the 2020 KCJRC. CSG Justice Center staff are exploring whether this summit can be supported through the Justice Reinvestment contract with Policy Research Associates (PRA).
New Insights:
• After a critical incident by a person on parole in Wichita, there has been a push to keep individuals who have been granted parole in jail/prison due to the limited availability of parole officers to track them. In the last year, there were at least 10 cases of recently paroled individuals committing more crimes, including murder. Most of these crimes occurred in Sedgwick County, which accounts for a large population of paroled individuals. KDOC representatives shared that most people on parole are paroled to Sedgwick County because it is their home county, and they can access necessary support from their family and work.
• Sedgwick County Corrections Director, Glenda Martens, is retiring in March 2022. Glenda was identified as a director of community corrections agencies who would assist with the implementation of JRI recommendations. CSG Justice Center staff are working with KDOC to identify an additional community corrections director who will represent community corrections agencies for implementation work.
Press Clips:
• KSNW: Kansas bill aimed to get more drug offenders off offender registry
• Hays Post: Advocates: Ban on food aid to Kansans with felonies leads to recidivism
Please check the box next to the following questions if the answer is 'yes'.
Please enter the applicable Event Date if there is an Event associated with this TTA.
When entering an Event Date, the Time is also required.
If the TTA is targeted to a particular audience or location, please complete the questions below.
Milestones are an element, activity, work product, or key task associated with completing the TTA (e.g. kick-off meeting, collect data from stake holders, deliver initial data analysis).
Please complete the fields below, if applicable, to create a milestone for this TTA.
Please respond to the Performance Metrics below. The Performance Metrics questions are based on the TTA Type indicated in the General Information section of the TTA.
Please submit a signed letter of support from your agency’s executive or other senior staff member. The letter can be emailed to or uploaded with this request. The letter should be submitted on official letterhead and include the following information:
- General information regarding the request for TTA services, i.e., the who, what, where, when, and why.
- The organizational and/or community needs specific to the request for TTA services.
- The benefits or anticipated outcomes from the receipt of TTA services.
By submitting this application to BJA NTTAC, I understand that upon approval of this application for TTA, the requestor agrees to keep BJA NTTAC informed of any circumstances that may impact the delivery of the TTA, including changes in the date of the event, event cancellation, or difficulties communicating with the assigned TTA provider.
Please call [site:phone] if you need further assistance completing this application.