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Priority Area 1: Engage and educate Kansas stakeholders on Justice Reinvestment policies and legislation to promote oversight and sustainability.

Update: In June, CSG Justice Center staff held on-site meetings with Kansas stakeholders individually and collectively to facilitate collaborative implementation work.

CSG Justice Center staff met with stakeholders from key criminal justice system players in Topeka in early June,including Chief Justice Marla Luckert and her General and Special Counsel, to discuss Justice Reinvestment implementation related to specialty courts and community supervision and discuss the Office of Judicial Administration’s potential subaward funding items. CSG Justice Center staff also met separately with Stephanie Bunten (Judicial Administrator, Office of Judicial Administration) and Stephanie Springer (Chief Court Service Officer) who shared insights into how Court Service officers (CSOs) are reacting to Justice Reinvestment policy changes. Importantly, Administrator Bunten agreed that OJA and Court Services should move forward with implementing the KCJRC recommendations and agreed to help round up OJA’s outstanding subaward application items. CSG Justice Center staff also conducted individual meetings with leaders from KDOC, the Prisoner Review Board (PRB), and representatives from local Community Corrections agencies to discuss JRI implementation progress.

CSG Justice Center staff met with Scott Schultz (Executive Director, Kansas Sentencing Commission). Mr. Schultz invited staff to present on implementation progress to the Kansas Sentencing Commission during their annual workshop on September 8–9. This will give CSG Justice Center staff an opportunity to highlight the efforts of the Kansas Justice Reinvestment Implementation Discussion Group and provide KSSC with additional data tracking areas.

During a call with Representative Stephen Owens (District 74), he suggested that CSG Justice Center staff present a JRI implementation update to the Joint Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice Oversight during the interim session that begins in October and that Representative Owens co-chairs. This is another opportunity to share how implementation is faring and highlight the progress of the Kansas Justice Reinvestment Implementation Discussion Group.
Priority Area 2: Assist Kansas with monitoring progress, collecting data, and tracking outcomes associated with JRI policies.

Update: In June, CSG Justice Center staff connected with Scott Schultz (Executive Director, Kansas Sentencing Commission), John Grube (Research Director, Kansas Sentencing Commission), and Jason Lamprecht (Statistician, Kansas Sentencing Commission) in person to continue to discuss data tracking measures. During the September 8 and 9 meetings, data tracking will also be an important feature discussed by CSG Justice Center staff.
Priority Area 3: Improve the community supervision system by creating efficiencies, consistency, coordination, and collaboration between OJA, KDOC, and Community Corrections entities.

Update: In June, CSG Justice Center staff, with support from CEPP, facilitated a collaborative community supervision implementation meeting. This was an opportunity for stakeholders from KDOC, OJA, the Prisoner Review Board, Community Corrections, and chief Court Services officers to work together and prioritize legislative and administrative supervision changes stemming from KCJRC recommendations. The implementation group will prioritize the execution of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between supervision entities to ensure a person on supervision will not be actively supervised by more than one supervision officer (SB 408). The group set a goal for an MOU to be executed by October. For this to happen, the group will have a draft MOU by early September so feedback from stakeholders can be received prior to final execution.

In addition to SB 408, the implementation group committed to working on administrative policy recommendations from the KCJRC pertaining to a behavior response matrix, collaborative trainings, and interagency quality assurance and continuous quality improvement processes. The implementation group discussed the 2020 KCJRC recommendation for an interagency re-engagement unit to reduce revocations. KDOC, Community Corrections, and OJA felt this recommendation is no longer applicable due to work that individual agencies have done to target absconders and reduce revocations. As a result, this recommendation was removed from the work of the implementation group. The group agreed to continue to meet biweekly through the end of the year.

Priority Area 4: Implement standardized general conditions of supervision and utilize a risk, need, responsivity (RNR) framework to select special conditions of supervision.

Update: The community supervision implementation group identified an area of their work on SB 408 that intersects with standardized general conditions of supervision. Because HB 2658, which relates to standardized general conditions of supervision, did not pass during the 2022 legislative session, the implementation group will be looking to pilot or adopt a similar philosophy administratively in Kansas. Representative Owens expressed interest in HB 2658 being reintroduced in the 2023 legislative session. Work on conditions of supervision will not begin until an MOU for SB 408 is developed.

Implementation members are aware that HB 2658 received broad support during the last legislative session and will likely be reintroduced during the 2023 legislative session. As a result, the administrative efforts from the group could provide a framework for statutory changes when the legislative session resumes.
Priority Area 5: Engage with KDOC and KDADS to improve reentry and behavioral health services for people in the criminal justice system.

Update: In June, CSG Justice Center staff engaged with PRA for the statewide Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) summit. During the summit, PRA sought to educate stakeholders (public health members, CEOs, regional/community hospitals, court personnel, law enforcement, community mental health centers, KDOC staff) on the goals of SIM mapping. PRA, in conjunction with CSG Justice Center staff, sought to determine priority areas for specific regions and how to engage people at the cross-section of criminal justice and mental health. The summit helped increase collaboration across entities and encouraged local stakeholders to discuss problems facing their specific counties. This allowed them to create region-specific priority areas and begin identifying solutions.
New Insights:
• CSG Justice Center staff have been asked to present on implementation progress to the Kansas Sentencing Commission during their annual workshop on September 8–9.
• When CSG Justice Center staff spoke with Representative Stephen Owens, the state’s JRI legislative champion, in June he mentioned that there was an appetite to move standardized conditions of supervision forward during the 2022 session, but politics got in the way. Owens believes that it will be an area that the legislature will revisit during the next session. Meanwhile, the collaborative implementation group is moving forward with those tasks administratively. Representative Owens also requested that CSG Justice Center staff provide an implementation update to the Joint Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice Oversight during the interim session, which will likely occur in October.
• In November, the entire House of Representatives is up for reelection, which could impact what policies the Joint Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice Oversight moves forward based on membership changes. It was confirmed in June that Representative Owens will be running unopposed during the November election.

Press Clips:

Strengthening behavioral health access will help Kansans and address far-reaching disparities

In parts of Kansas, Black drivers get pulled over more. But police don't track numbers everywhere

ACLU of Kansas argues probation shouldn’t depend on ability to pay fines