If they close the Stockton prison, who will clean up the trash along Vine Street?

Parole, Prisons Could Be Cut to Save Money
by Cliff Judy (WICHITA, Kan.)



Cuts may be coming to Kansas prisons that even corrections officials say may make the state less safe. The Department of Corrections has been asked to cut 3.4% of its fiscal year 2009 budget, $9.3 million, with only five months left to pull it off.
Department spokesperson Bill Miskell made the announcement Tuesday, and hundreds of department employees received letters about the possible cuts.
Effective April 1, the following are the cuts the DOC has proposed:
--Elimination of parole services and all state parole offices
--Close Winfield Correctional Facility
--Close the central unit of the Norton Correctional Facility
--Move up closing date of Stockton Correctional Facility to April 1
--Elimination of offender programs inside prison facilities (mental health counseling, substance abuse counseling, and sex offender counseling)
Along with closures at facilities in Osawatomie and Toronto, this means the state will have to find a new home for 1,309 prisoners. There are currently only 500 empty beds available.
Miskell says the moves would put several remaining prison facilities beyond capacity, and pairing that with no offender programs for the inmates could lead to a serious safety issue.
"Do we think this is a good idea?" asked Miskell in an interview Wednesday morning. "No. We don't think that's a good idea. The options that we have presented are not good options, but they're the best options that we can present."
Don Singleton is a former Kansas prisoner who now works for Bill Glass Ministries trying to bring Christianity to prisoners and help them turn their lives around. When Eyewitness News told him about the cuts, he was most concerned about the cuts to parole and offender programs.
"You take all the programs out and what is a guy going to do other than eat, sleep, walk around the yard, and think?" says Singleton. "When a man thinks about the wrong things for too long, it can become frustrating."
Singleton also knows how hard it can be for a released prisoner to get back on his or her feet because of the stigma of hiring a former inmate. It would be even tougher to find a job, he says, without the help of parole programs. He's also concerned for the public being exposed to former prisoners that need the help.
"When you have something with no boundaries," says Singleton, "man, it's going to get crazy."
The Department of Corrections says an average of 5,791 men and women are on parole everyday in Kansas.
Miskell says around 700 corrections employees work in parole and at the facilities that would be closed. He says only a very limited number of people would likely be offered transfers to other jobs in the department.
State lawmakers are currently looking into proposed budget cuts.

With the prison population as it is, and with the money spent year to year (regardless of the economic climate....) on housing such a population that you would think that mankind would rethink some of the laws that have placed a certain percentage of the prison population into said prisons for some offenses, that seem to have no harm on anything, but maybe possibly the offender himself.

To eliminate parole services and all state parole offices makes no sense. This either means A) Nobody gets out on parole, or B) A prisoner gets out on parole, but unsupervised? Sounds to me, maybe some criminal penalties need to be re-evaluated.

Sounds to me to be a sky is falling scare tactic.

The system is so engorged upon it self it cannot defecate the remains of mankind fast enough.

Here's a dumb question, if they don't have an answer to what they are going to do with the "extra" prisoners then come up with another solution to cutting back. Does the state of Kansas think that other states will accept our prisoners. I don't think that will happen.

We could ship them back to the Mexican prisons.

Degeneration X wrote:

Here's a dumb question, if they don't have an answer to what they are going to do with the "extra" prisoners then come up with another solution to cutting back. Does the state of Kansas think that other states will accept our prisoners. I don't think that will happen.

Sure they will....at taxpayer expense.

Be careful with too many ideas. Obama might catch wind and send them to Cuba with towels stapled to their heads to replace the terrorists he's letting out. Castro and the media will be none the wiser.

At least not untill they kill more people....

BRILLIANT!!

I think prisons should be reserved for only those who present a clear threat to the public. That would let alot of harmless individuals go free and put most of Congress in.

[/quote]If they close the Stockton prison, who will clean up the trash along Vine Street?[quote]

city employees?? maybe offenders that have to do community service?? or maybe to generate money, they could start handing out tickets for littering and make the litterbugs pick it up as part of their punishment

Perhaps they can get the businesses along Vine to adopt a block?

What do you think Nitro?

More than 20% of the Kansas prison pop., or approximately 2000 inmates are in prison for a drug offense as the most serious offense.

http://www.dc.state.ks.us/publications/Statistical%20Profile%20FY%202008%20Offender%20Population.pdf

The per prisoner cost is mre than $20,000 per year. It would save the state more than 40 million per year if they kicked out the drug offenders, and left the murderers, sex offenders, theft and assault people in prison.

And since they only have to save 9.3 million, it seems like a no brainer as to what to do. But is that what they will do? Oh, no. Because that would make sense.

[quote="peg"]More than 20% of the Kansas prison pop., or approximately 2000 inmates are in prison for a drug offense as the most serious offense.

http://www.dc.state.ks.us/publications/Statistical%20Profile%20FY%202008%20Offender%20Population.pdf

The per prisoner cost is mre than $20,000 per year. It would save the state more than 40 million per year if they kicked out the drug offenders, and left the murderers, sex offenders, theft and assault people in prison.quote]
Its also some of those drug offenders that can also be very violent and cause violent crimes.

True. But a persons violent state depends on his original disposition plus what specific drug he's fond of.

You would only have to kick out 25% of them to save enough money to salvage the other programs. I'd rather have all the weed salesman out of prison than get rid of parole supervision for ex-cons who committed murder or rape.

State prison officials last week were dealing with $9.3 million in looming budget cuts by making plans to close two major prisons and stop supervising 5,800 parolees.

Those officials will return to work this week with a less daunting task -- trimming a more manageable $2.7 million from the Kansas Department of Corrections budget.

Corrections spokesman Bill Miskell said it appears that the prisons in Norton and Winfield will survive, as will the state parole system.

"We are still working on final decision, but we are hopeful at this point that we can meet a $2.7 million reduction without closing a major facility, and retaining the bulk of parole and post-release supervision" operations, he said.

The Kansas Legislature has been debating a bill that will determine how the state will deal with its budget deficit. Corrections accounts for about 2 percent of the state budget, Miskell said.

Justoo wrote:

Perhaps they can get the businesses along Vine to adopt a block?

Bet there's a tax increase coming for Hays residents to pay for it.