Good for Sedgwick County Sheriff Gary Steed for speaking out on the issue of whether the county needs a jail expansion. “We need more beds. The potential for lawsuits gets higher with overcrowding,” he told The Eagle, taking issue with County Manager William Buchanan’s proposal to shelve a $54 million jail expansion and cut county property taxes by 1 mill. Unfortunately, Steed’s lament neither provides much clarity nor settles the issue. County commissioners won’t be inclined to forge ahead with a bigger jail — and without a tax cut — in light of Buchanan’s plan. So Steed, who is not seeking re-election, may not be able to avoid seeing the jail issue pass to his successor. Meanwhile, county residents are left to wonder whether a bigger jail is needed or not — the population numbers still seem to support it — and how long the county can go without one.
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22 Comments
The County needs to take the lead on getting alternative sentencing options putin place by the Legislature. Many non-violent offenders can be dealt with using work release, work programs, treatment etc. And allow people who cannot pay tickets/fines an opportunity to work them off.
I think the public needs much more information on expansion of our Sedgwick County jail as well as the associated issue of Kansas prison space.
And I object to inserting the issue of “soft on crime” into this discussion. This whole issue of justice and incarceration/housing of prisoners is too complicated AND EXPENSIVE to simplify by calling people names who are looking for answers.
I have discussed this with Kansas Senator Phil Journey, one of our better informed Kansans on these issues. Among many facts, Senator Journey says the annual cost of incarcerating each prisoner in Kansas prisons averages some $29,000 per year.
Compare this to some $10,000 per year to educate our Kansas K-12 public school students.
Of course, hopefully public school students still outnumber our state prison population.
In the past, I have discussed the proposed expansion of the Sedgwick County Jail with Sheriff Steed. The expansion is planned for the north side of the existing Sedgwick County jail facility which is adjacent to the downtown Courthouse building.
According to Sheriff Steed, theoretically the County jail generally only houses prisoners awaiting their court dates. After conviction, theoretically convicted persons are transported to one of the Kansas state prisons of which there are probably ten or fifteen. However, I am told these state prisons are also full so the convicted persons actually often remain in the many crowded county jails around the state.
I have been told a number of crimes exist that could be handled with sentences less than incarceration. I am not well enough informed to comment on this but its obvious that a scale of crimes exists at the lower end of which should be handled without incarceration.
I presume we need to beef up our parole system, social workers, day jail, etc. to allow parents to continue to moniter their homes, bills, family, children, etc. Presumably there are experts on this subject.
In the big picture, I have seen jail growth continue exponentially over the years with no stopping in sight. What are those statistics?
A comparatively high percentage of Americans are living in the nations prisons, AT EXTREMELY HIGH TAXPAYER EXPENSE.
KANSANS MUST PULL THERE HEADS OUT OF THE SAND ON THIS ISSUE AND DEVELOP NEW SOLUTIONS.
BTH: I agree with you. You expressed my thoughts in a lot less words!
Violent criminals need to be locked up.
Non-violent criminals, perhaps not so much.
Those of you who lament the cost of keeping someone in jail need to remember how much a criminal on the loose can cost us.
These metal thefts, for instance: It is very easy to cause hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, ripping out copper pipe, even if the salvage value is only a few thousand dollars.
Alternative sentencing will help, but it is mostly a way to reduce the rate of increase in our jail population.
Jails and prisons are expensive.
Criminals on the loose are FAR more expensive.
A few years ago, when the county was getting us ready to vote for a new jail expansion, they started rounding up, arresting and jailing people for overdue library books and fines, etc., so they could overcrowd the current facility and justify the proposed addition. I haven’t heard if they’re doing it again, but I wouldn’t be surprised. This isn’t about a dire need for more space to house violent criminals; it’s about contracts for croneys and a contest of “My jail is bigger than yours!”
Jwink, non felony convicted crinmals are housed in the jail you dont go to prison for driving without a license or not getting tags for your dog.
Sadly anymore it takes something bad to happen and a lawsuit to get people to step up anymore.
You’d think we’d had learned the lessons after 911, the bridge collapse, Hurricane Katrina..but nope, nobody wants to spend the money.
TENT CITIES! Like that Sheriff in Arizona. Enough said, I’m right, argument over, problem resolved. NEXT!
Sheriff candidate Undersheriff Bob Hinshaw said on the radio this morning that 75% of the people in the Sedg Cty jail were pre-trial detainees – including people who have been arrested for failing to pay parking tickets. If we want to control the number of people incarcerated there, it seems to me that we need to take a more serious look at how we treat those arrested (at least for non-violent crimes) but still presumed innocent until trial. SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT – my goodness. I had no idea.
BTH-
You cannot be put in jail for not paying a fine. So says the Kansas State Supreme Court. You can be put in jail for not showing up for the court date.
Violent offenders need to be removed from society. For many that is a deterrant For some, it is not even punishment, it is old home week. But,
for the safety of others, they should be removed from among us. Perhaps it is time to look at alternative sentencing for non violent crimes. Perhaps not. Seems like there was some great satisfaction in seeing some politicians and higher up business people sentenced to jail. More mundance nonviolent criminals deserve no less perhaps. It is a complex question, one that has no easy answer
Ive actually had to spend a day and a half in jail, ( bench warrant for a fix it ticket that was a decade old) in the holding cell with me were guys with jaywalking charges as old as mine, assorted driving charges, guy who didn’t have a tag for his dog, of the 20 or so people in the cell their was only 1 who had a serious charge(rape). I was their long enough to be fed 4 times before being released by a judge. Im sure I cost the county a good 50 dollars and when I went to court they dismissed all the charges anyways.
Nobody is arguing that violent offenders shouldn’t be locked up, and even most of them with enough money can bond out. Its the wasting of jail space for petty crimes, parking tickets, not returning library books on time. or crimes like drug abuse where treatment would probably be a better choice, does the person with a DUI really need to sit in a cell for a couple months or would house arrest and allowing him to keep his job be better. It seems to me that for most crimes that one would go to jail for(non felony) could be delt with thru fines and community service anyways
“It seems to me that for most crimes that one would go to jail for(non felony) could be delt with thru fines and community service anyways”
Maybe. But if they refuse to pay fine? Community service is a good alternative, but then, who is going to supervise them? WHo is going to be willing to sign off on their work? And what will you do if they don;t do it?
When our newspaper comes out with the headlines about the police rounding up MANY criminals overnight — be assured many are the type bench warrant Tom mentions above. The big time police work where they organize all their resources to lock up all those offenders with outstanding bench warrants! These “criminals” (many of whom didn’t even know they had outstanding warrants!) sit in jail and are processed and court dates are set… Meantime, the police are basking in the glory of rounding up all these “criminals” who were for the most part exactly where the phone directory said they were. And the courts work load increases. All this to dismiss some charges that shouldn’t have been made let alone carried to this extreme.
Next time you read the headlines about this superb police work (sic) realize how much safer you are since Tom is in jail waiting for a court date on that fix-it charge, not to mention the guy whose dog didn’t have a tag! Course it only takes some thirty years to find a BTK (after he tells them where he is!).
Then extrapolate this fine police work to the reported overcrowded jails to discover how accurate what we’re told really is.
Semp,
As the guy said, 75% of the inmates are people (theoretically still presumed innocent) awaiting trial, for whom bail hasn’t yet been set or who can’t afford bail. They aren’t being punished, since they haven’t been convicted yet (and many will simply have their charges dismissed), just being held. If one of your kids was in that situation, would you want them in a tent city in August or January in Kansas?
The tent city in Arizona is only for people who have been convicted, seen a thing on the History channel about.
LJ, probably the same people who do it now.
“LJ, probably the same people who do it now”
Which may be why you don;t see an expansion of it’s use as an option.
Ad, as you noted, most of the people you were in jail with were not there because of sentencing, rather, because they were awaiting a hearing after bein picked up. Mostly for failure to appear, it would seem.
I wish Sheriff Steed would come on here and explain the situation … are most of the inmates in Sedgwick County jail awaiting trial? What percentage?
Is there adequate space in Kansas prisons for receiving prisoners from the county jails around the state of Kansas? Is construction of new Kansas prisons the next big expenditure coming up for Kansas taxpayers? I thought we already had some new ones.
When will we build enough new city, county and state jails and prisons?
I don’t know what the answer is … but there must be a way to stop this continuously increasing incarceration rate in Kansas. Is anyone in Kansas watching this and protecting the citizens’ checkbooks?
Frankly I doubt it.
I don’t know how you can not know you have a warrant.
Seriously. And yeah I want them to go to jail..even if its just technical and don’t even see the inside of the cell.
what do u reckon of this chat?