Brief(1)
H.B. 2101 amends a criminal procedure statute dealing with presentence reports regarding misdemeanor crimes to parallel the procedures currently in the law for felony crime presentence reports. The bill provides that these reports shall become part of the court record and shall be accessible to the public. The official version, the defendant's version, and the victim's statement, any psychological reports, and drug and alcohol reports will be accessible only to the parties, the sentencing judge, the Department of Corrections, and if requested, the Kansas Sentencing Commission.
Current law requires various parties to request these reports or various portions of the reports before disclosure is permitted.
The Senate Committee amendment was technical.
Background
The bill was requested by the Office of Judicial Administration. Jeanne Turner, Chief Clerk of the District Court, Fifth Judicial District, testified in support of the bill. The conferee testified that this bill would make language in K.S.A. 21-4605 parallel to language in K.S.A. 21-4714. Barbara Tombs testified on behalf of the Kansas Sentencing Commission in support of this legislation. This bill was previously introduced in 1998 as S.B. 552.
The bill has no fiscal impact on the state.
1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/bill_search.html.