Brief ⁽¹⁾

SB 490 establishes a target offender population for community corrections programs and requires the Kansas Supreme Court to establish a risk assessment tool for use by court services officers to determine high risk or high needs.

The target offender population for community corrections programs includes adult offenders convicted of felony offenses as follows:

• Offenders whose offense is classified in the nondrug grid or drug grid border boxes where the judge has the discretion to sentence the offender to probation or to imprisonment;



• Offenders whose presumptive sentence is imprisonment but who receive a nonprison sentence as a result of a departure;



• Offenders whose crime fits the definition of "offender" in the Kansas Offender Registration Act and which crime is classified as a severity level 7 or higher offense and who receive a nonprison sentence;



• Offenders who have violated their conditions of release;



• Offenders who are determined to be "high risk or high needs" by court services officers; and



• Offenders who have successfully completed a conservation camp program as a condition of supervision.

Further, juvenile offenders may be accepted into community corrections programs if approved by local community corrections advisory boards. Grants from community corrections funds administered by the Secretary of Corrections may not be used for this purpose.

The House Committee amended the bill to include adult offenders at levels 6 and 7 of the sentencing guidelines grid for consideration of placement in community corrections. Another amendment would allow the court to place certain other offenders in community corrections when the reasons for the placement are enumerated.

Background

The bill was supported by the Kansas Sentencing Commission and the Kansas Department of Corrections. The Office of Judicial Administration and several judges expressed some reservations with the bill.

The fiscal note does not reflect any increase in costs to 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