Kansas State Justice Statistics Program - 2009

The State Justice Statistics (SJS) Program is designed to maintain and enhance each state's capacity to address criminal justice issues through collection and analysis of data. The SJS Program provides support to each state to coordinate and conduct statistical activities within the state, conduct research to estimate impacts of legislative and policy changes, and serve as a liaison in assisting BJS to gather data from respondent agencies within their states.

Under this award, the Kansas Sentencing Commission (KSC) plans to collect data for the Deaths in Custody study and provide the information to BJS on a semi-annual basis. In addition KSC proposes to use funds to continue its drug policy study. The SAC plans to continue collecting, analyzing, and reporting statistics on data relating to: the number of offenders receiving alternative sentencing; number of court cases; court case outcomes; demographic information; determinate factors in modalities; and post treatment/sentence recidivism. Additional data to show the number of offenders in treatment, amount paid for treatment, and sentencing data used to project bed cost will also be collected. Findings will be presented in several reports that will be submitted to the Kansas Sentencing Commission, as well as the State Legislature, for review and discussion in recommending policy changes and determining the cost/benefit of the treatment programs. The reports will also be made available on the SAC's website.

(CA/NCF)

The State Justice Statistics (SJS) Program is designed to maintain and enhance each state's capacity to address criminal justice issues through collection and analysis of data. The SJS Program provides support to each state to coordinate and conduct statistical activities within the state, conduct research to estimate impacts of legislative and policy changes, and serve as a liaison in assisting BJS to gather data from respondent agencies within their states.

Under this award, the Kansas Sentencing Commission (KSC) plans to collect data for the Deaths in Custody Reporting Program and provide the information to BJS annually. In addition KSC proposes to use funds to continue its drug policy study. The SAC plans to continue collecting, analyzing, and reporting statistics on alternative sentencing to determine the impact on the following areas: recidivism, incarceration as punishment for non-violent drug offenders, and state resources attributed to this program. The agency will expand the scope of the evaluation to add demographic data on women and race. Also the agency will develop methods to identify the particular drug usage of those convicted. Findings will be presented in several reports that will be submitted to the Kansas Sentencing Commission, as well as the State Legislature, for review and discussion in recommending policy changes and determining the cost/benefit of the treatment programs. The reports will also be made available on the SAC's website

CA/NCF