2/24/2010
By DAVID CLOUSTON Salina Journal

Of more than 8,000 adult offenders locked up in Kansas prisons, the state has bed space to treat just 100 or so prisoners who have substance and or sex abuse addictions, according to officials with the Kansas Department of Corrections.

Those who supervise offenders in their communities working with the state parole office, court services and community corrections programs, are doing the best jobs they can, said Annie Grevas, director of community corrections for Saline and Ottawa counties.

But "there are just not enough services," she said, to address the need for treatment and other needs of every offender, both in prison, or when they return to the streets after serving their sentences.

And nationally, 97 percent of people who go to prison for nonviolent offenses -- such as Salinan Paul Henry Parker Jr., now facing charges for allegedly raping an elderly hospital patient -- are coming back to the communities where they were formerly living, Grevas said.

Such offenders don't get rehabilitated, they get warehoused, she said Tuesday.

"Because of budget cuts, and severe budget cuts, the Paul Parkers of the world are coming out of your prisons. And he is not a cured man," Grevas said.

"Is the answer just money? No. You have to have great services," Grevas said. "But you have to have money to keep those programs going."

Rep. Charlie Roth , R-Salina, said that now the state is "just warehousing prisoners and sending them back out when their time is up. That's not a good situation."

"Corrections is at a tipping point, in my view," he said. "We can't cut them any more. Or we're going to have more bad things happen. It's not a question of if, it's a question of when."

Supervised by the state

Grevas's agency was not supervising Parker, 46, who was being supervised by the state parole office since his release in January. Community corrections does supervise some prisoners after their release from state corrections facilities, and others who are diverted to community sanctions programs rather than being locked up behind bars for their crimes.

Her agency has nine adult case managers, most of whom supervise 45 to 47 offenders.

"That's higher than we'd like to see it. You'd like to have the intensive supervision numbers down lower, for the (more serious) cases," she said.

The reality for many released prisoners is that they have little or no money, no place to live save a rescue mission or similar type shelter facility, and few if any resources to find a job to resume their lives. That many find their way back into a life of crime isn't a surprise, she said.

Identifying barriers

Identifying the barriers to successful reintegration back into a community and reducing them will significantly reduce the risk of an offender reoffending, said Kathleen Graves, director of community corrections services for the Kansas Department of Corrections.

"The reality is, it's less expensive to provide services in the community than incarcerate them," Graves said.

She alluded to the lack of treatment beds for offenders still in prison.

"That's the reality of the reductions that the Department of Corrections has received due to the state budget cuts," Graves said. "It's cause a reduction in services across the board."

n Reporter David Clouston can be reached at 822-1403 or by e-mail at dclouston@salina.com.

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