DESPITE DRUG LAW, KANSAS UNEASY ABOUT PRISON SPACE

TOPEKA - New projections showing fewer inmates entering the state's
crowded prisons are giving Kansas officials extra time to figure out
how to house prisoners.

The prospect of bulging prisons and expensive solutions, however,
still haunts corrections officials, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and the
Legislature.

The latest reprieve is a new law that requires low-level drug
offenders to be sentenced to treatment programs rather than to prison.

The Kansas Sentencing Commission, which first developed the proposal,
estimates that the treatment plan will save about 500 prison beds over
the next decade.

But that legislation might take awhile to implement because of
confusion over just when judges can begin using its provisions.

The new law "is a delaying tactic to give us more time to figure out
what our long-term response is going to be," Corrections Secretary
Roger Werholtz said.

The law will give the state another year or two to come up with a plan
for dealing with the continually expanding population, Werholtz said.
If Kansas decides to build a new prison, estimates are that work must
start two years before it will be needed.

Sen. John Vratil, a Leawood Republican and chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee, echoed Werholtz's views.

"Unless the Legislature does something to relieve the burden of prison
space or something happens, the Legislature will have breathing room
in the 2004 session, but by the 2005 session we'll have to take
further action," Vratil said. "One of those potentials is to build new
prison space."

With the new law, he said, "We bought a little time, but precious
little time."

Kansas now has space for 9,244 male and female inmates. Last week,
9,098 prisoners were behind bars.

Projections from the commission are that sometime in the 2007 budget
year, which begins July 1, 2006, the prison population will reach
9,241. In 2013, the end of the projection period, the state is
expected to have 10,131 inmates competing for space. The projections
are based on a computer model used by the commission.

Over the years, the Corrections Department has filled almost every
available space with beds for prisoners. Now, other options are being
considered.

Besides a new state prison, the possibilities include:

. Contracting with owners of private prisons in other states to house
Kansas inmates. The Corrections Department already has an agreement
for medium-security bed space in a private prison in Texas.

. Starting an early release plan for inmates or developing an
alternative, nonprison program for other types of offenders.

. Leasing beds in Kansas county jails.

. Encouraging construction of a private prison in Kansas.

The one bit of relief that prison officials are counting on to free
some beds already has potential problems.

The drug treatment law, Senate Bill 123, went into effect July 1, but
sentencing to community treatment programs isn't to take place until
Nov. 1.

In the legal community, questions have been raised about just when
judges can sentence drug users to the treatment programs, which last
18 months.

Wyandotte County District Judge Ernest Johnson will be discussing the
law at a judicial conference Tuesday in Overland Park.

Johnson, chairman of the Sentencing Commission, said there are two
interpretations of the law and both have legitimate support.

One holds that if a crime was committed after July 1, the date the law
took effect, sentencing to the treatment program could occur after
Nov. 1.

The other position is that both the crime and the treatment sentencing
would have to occur after Nov. 1.

Vratil, whose Senate committee recommended the legislation, agreed
that the wording of the law can leave lawyers and judges puzzled.

"My belief is the Legislature intended for those crimes committed
after July 1 to have the drug treatment program available after Nov.
1," he said.