In the past couple of days, 5 Kansas prison inmates escaped from prison. These men included a child molester, a double murderer, a robber and a burglar. 4 of the 5 escaped from a county jail. What were such serious criminals doing in a county jail? Well, Kansas prisons are overcrowded and there is no money to house more. So, the Department of Corrections is contracting with county jails to house these people that are supposed to be in prison.
This issue underscores some of the practical problems with the Kansas Legislature’s push to add more people to the jail system by criminalizing refusals to submit to tests when demanded by law enforcement (never mind the immense constitutional issues for a minute). The new legislation is anticipated to add thousands of new people to our jails, and cost at least 2 million dollars. Obviously, we don’t have the room and we don’t have the money. I understand that it is easy to pick on the DUI offenders and people who don’t want to give up their bodily fluids to the government, but shouldn’t we be more concerned with the child molesters and murderers? Where are the priorities? Interestingly, the article quotes Senator Tim Owens on the subject of priorities. He is the main proponent of criminalizing refusals! He talks about needing a bigger fish tank or less fish, at the same time he is trying to add thousands of fish to the tank with his new crime.
Here is the deal: The new law, which will become effective July 1, 2012, if passed, will make it a crime to refuse to take a test. Prosecutors and lawmakers are rejoicing because it means it will be super-easy to get convictions. If you didn’t bend over when the officer told you to – you are guilty. Each conviction carries mandatory minimum jail sentences. Thus, all of the people who get convicted HAVE to go to a county jail, just like the one that the murderer, robber and burglar walked out of this week. So, we are going to be paying big money (that we don’t have – remember our courts are shut down right now, thus delaying the handling of serious cases) to house regular working people who have made a mistake with the murders, robbers, burglars and child molesters who we can’t fit into our prison system. All of these folks will be down at your local county jail in the same community as your local schools, businesses, churches, etc. And I guess we will need more money to build more prisons. Make sense yet? No, it doesn’t but our legislators never really hear from the people and are never held accountable by the electorate, so they are more concerned with pleasing the people who stand to benefit from this legislation – prosecutors, police, ignition interlock providers (a huge lobby with lots of money) and the prison industrial complex. For what it is worth, I say let’s keep the murderers and child molesters in secured prisons, and focus our limited resources on them.