Views
Opinion column
by Murrel Bland
The Kansas Legislature is looking for ways to save money. A juvenile justice bill may provide one way that state and local governments can cut costs.
That was one of the issues that legislators discussed Saturday morning, March 19, at the Kansas City, Kan., Main Public Library. The League of Women Voters, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Kansas City, Kan., Public Library sponsored the meeting. State Reps. Valdenia Winn, D-34th Dist., and Pam Curtis, D-32nd Dist., and Sen. Pat Pettey, D-Sixth Dist., made presentations and answered questions.
The juvenile justice bill, which has bipartisan support, is estimated to save $72 million over a five-year period by keeping juveniles out of the detention system.
The numbers tell the story. It cost $90,000 a year to keep a person in prison. Estimates are that a shift to community-based educational and vocational and therapy programs for young offenders could cost as little as $5,000 a year per offender.
Sen. Pettey said there was considerable input on this bill from Wyandotte County judges including Wayne Lampson and Delia York. The Kansas Senate approved the bill Friday, March 18, on a voice vote. The Kansas House is expected to vote on Monday, March 21. She said that a grant from the Pew Charitable Trust helped study the issue.
Sen. Pettey told of a Senate bill that would prohibit the offender registration for a person from 12 to 16 years old who would possess or transmit a nude photo of a child. Such an offender could be charged with a class A misdemeanor. However, such an offender, upon a second subsequent conviction, would be considered a felon.
Rep. Winn told of a bill approved by the Kansas Senate that would greatly expand the reasons that a Supreme Court justice could be impeached. She deplored the proposed law; she said it was a way that conservative legislators are retaliating against the court because of its ruling on the funding of schools.
Rep. Curtis said conservative legislators continue to complain about federal regulations, yet impose more control on local government. She cited efforts to remove the rental license provision, the local property tax lid, prohibiting local government from regulating junk food and eliminating the prevailing wage provision on public projects.
Murrel Bland is the former editor of The Wyandotte West and The Piper Press. He is the executive director of Business West.
See earlier story on this legislative coffee at https://wyandotteonline.com/concern-about-school-issues-expressed-at-legislative-coffee/.