Kansas
Step 4: Measure the impact and enhance accountability.
For the state of Kansas to realize the objectives in the legislative package, state and local government officials will need to address several challenges. The statute’s goal of reducing probation revocations, for example, will require unprecedented levels of collaboration among judges, community-based treatment providers, community corrections agencies and other local stakeholders. Together, these groups must design new, effective supervision strategies, which are tailored to the unique aspects of their counties to improve the success of people on supervision.
No single state agency can coordinate these efforts across the counties, as they require support and leadership from multiple state and local systems. People under supervision must be connected to community-based mental health and substance abuse treatment, housing, and employment—services all funded by distinct state agencies. Similarly, the NCI seeks to bring together funding streams and services from multiple state agencies in order to realign those resources around a common set of neighborhood-based strategies for improving public safety and the quality of life of all residents.
To centralize accountability and integrate the efforts of these distinct government agencies, state policymakers established the Kansas Reentry Policy Council (KRPC), which maintains a statewide, multi-system vision for reducing recidivism. The KRPC includes the secretaries of five cabinet agencies, leaders of the judiciary, and designees of the legislative leadership. It will collect information and report to the legislature about the state’s progress in establishing and realizing a comprehensive risk reduction and reentry plan.