2006 Kansas Code - 74-9101

      74-9101.   Kansas sentencing commission; establishment; duties. (a) There is hereby established the Kansas sentencing commission.

      (b)   The commission shall:

      (1)   Develop a sentencing guideline model or grid based on fairness and equity and shall provide a mechanism for linking justice and corrections policies. The sentencing guideline model or grid shall establish rational and consistent sentencing standards which reduce sentence disparity, to include, but not be limited to, racial and regional biases which may exist under current sentencing practices. The guidelines shall specify the circumstances under which imprisonment of an offender is appropriate and a presumed sentence for offenders for whom imprisonment is appropriate, based on each appropriate combination of reasonable offense and offender characteristics. In developing its recommended sentencing guidelines, the commission shall take into substantial consideration current sentencing and release practices and correctional resources, including but not limited to the capacities of local and state correctional facilities. In its report, the commission shall make recommendations regarding whether there is a continued need for and what is the projected role of, if any, the Kansas parole board and whether the policy of allocating good time credits for the purpose of determining an inmate's eligibility for parole or conditional release should be continued;

      (2)   consult with and advise the legislature with reference to the implementation, management, monitoring, maintenance and operations of the sentencing guidelines system;

      (3)   direct implementation of the sentencing guidelines system;

      (4)   assist in the process of training judges, county and district attorneys, court services officers, state parole officers, correctional officers, law enforcement officials and other criminal justice groups. For these purposes, the sentencing commission shall develop an implementation policy and shall construct an implementation manual for use in its training activities;

      (5)   receive presentence reports and journal entries for all persons who are sentenced for crimes committed on or after July 1, 1993, to develop post-implementation monitoring procedures and reporting methods to evaluate guideline sentences. In developing the evaluative criteria, the commission shall take into consideration rational and consistent sentencing standards which reduce sentence disparity to include, but not be limited to, racial and regional biases;

      (6)   advise and consult with the secretary of corrections and members of the legislature in developing a mechanism to link guidelines sentence practices with correctional resources and policies, including but not limited to the capacities of local and state correctional facilities. Such linkage shall include a review and determination of the impact of the sentencing guidelines on the state's prison population, review of corrections programs and a study of ways to more effectively utilize correction dollars and to reduce prison population;

      (7)   make recommendations relating to modification to the sentencing guidelines as provided in K.S.A. 21-4725 and amendments thereto;

      (8)   prepare and submit fiscal impact and correctional resource statement as provided in K.S.A. 74-9106 and amendments thereto;

      (9)   make recommendations to those responsible for developing a working philosophy of sentencing guideline consistency and rationality;

      (10)   develop prosecuting standards and guidelines to govern the conduct of prosecutors when charging persons with crimes and when engaging in plea bargaining;

      (11)   analyze problems in criminal justice, identify alternative solutions and make recommendations for improvements in criminal law, prosecution, community and correctional placement, programs, release procedures and related matters including study and recommendations concerning the statutory definition of crimes and criminal penalties and review of proposed criminal law changes;

      (12)   perform such other criminal justice studies or tasks as may be assigned by the governor or specifically requested by the legislature, department of corrections, the chief justice or the attorney general;

      (13)   develop a program plan which includes involvement of business and industry in the public or other social or fraternal organizations for admitting back into the mainstream those offenders who demonstrate both the desire and ability to reconstruct their lives during their incarceration or during conditional release;

      (14)   appoint a task force to make recommendations concerning the consolidation of probation, parole and community corrections services;

      (15)   produce official inmate population projections annually on or before six weeks following the date of receipt of the data from the department of corrections. When the commission's projections indicate that the inmate population will exceed available prison capacity within two years of the date of the projection, the commission shall identify and analyze the impact of specific options for (A) reducing the number of prison admissions; or (B) adjusting sentence lengths for specific groups of offenders. Options for reducing the number of prison admissions shall include, but not be limited to, possible modification of both sentencing grids to include presumptive intermediate dispositions for certain categories of offenders. Intermediate sanction dispositions shall include, but not be limited to: intensive supervision; short-term jail sentences; halfway houses; community-based work release; electronic monitoring and house arrest; substance abuse treatment; and pre-revocation incarceration. Intermediate sanction options shall include, but not be limited to, mechanisms to explicitly target offenders that would otherwise be placed in prison. Analysis of each option shall include an assessment of such options impact on the overall size of the prison population, the effect on public safety and costs. In preparing the assessment, the commission shall review the experience of other states and shall review available research regarding the effectiveness of such option. The commission's findings relative to each sentencing policy option shall be presented to the governor and the joint committee on corrections and juvenile justice oversight no later than November 1; and

      (16) at the request of the governor or the joint committee on corrections and juvenile justice oversight, initiate and complete an analysis of other sentencing policy adjustments not otherwise evaluated by the commission.

      History:   L. 1989, ch. 225, § 1; L. 1992, ch. 239, § 284; L. 1993, ch. 291, § 246; L. 1997, ch. 179, § 4; July 1.