Note:
This awardee has received supplemental funding. This award detail page includes information about both the original award and supplemental awards.
Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2012, $60,000)
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) will collect data for the Arrest Related Deaths study and provide the information to BJS annually. The SAC also plans to research and conduct a study on domestic violence in the state, and compare its findings with national trends in the areas of conviction, sentencing policy, and sentencing practices. 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 refine the scope of the evaluation to determine the impact that the substance abuse treatment programs have had on the participants of the programs, as well as expand the scope to include lower severity level non-drug offenders and DUI offenders. 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