By RYAN McCARTHY
KU Statehouse Wire Service
TOPEKA — The Department of Corrections was not the most discussed agency during the Kansas Legislature session but public officials are still looking to maintain and improve the prison system.
Jeremy Barclay, the Department of Corrections communications director, said there is a need for improvement in mental health treatment within prison facilities. Gov. Sam Brownback agreed.
“We’re trying to get the mental health system much more integrated into the corrections, the police and the KanCare system,” Brownback said. “There’s no question we have a need but I don’t think the systems have been well-integrated.”
Barclay said the corrections system is one of the largest mental health care providers in the state and they have to spend resources to rehabilitate inmates.
“We’re trying to train them toward long-term, pro-social thinking,” he said. “What we really want them to focus on is positive thinking classes and substance abuse classes whenever that’s appropriate.”
One aspect that is working is the mentoring program where thousands of volunteers are matched with inmates so they can have a steady environment when released.
The volunteer mentors help recently released inmates find housing and jobs, and support them as they rebuild their lives outside of prison walls.
“Once a guy goes to prison a lot his relationships are gone and, if you don’t provide him some stable relationship, he’s going to go back to the place where he got in trouble before,” Brownback said.
To assist the mentor program Brownback recommended $2 million for the offender programs and $3 million for behavioral programs for 2015.
Substance abuse treatment for inmates is also among the DOC’s priorities.
According to Barclay, 3,300 inmates suffer from some sort of substance abuse. He also said 66 percent of the inmates that come into the system have some sort of substance abuse. According to the Department of Corrections website, on Thursday there were 8,845 male inmates incarcerated in Kansas.
For Barclay and his fellow employees the focus remains making inmates functional members of society.
“Whenever you’ve got somebody in your care and custody 24 hours a day for their duration of their sentence we do try and provide physical outlets,” Barclay said.
The other major goal for the DOC is working to reduce the rate of inmates returning to prison. According to testimony by Department of Corrections secretary Ray Roberts in January, recidivism of Kansas inmates declined from about 58 percent to 33 percent between 2000 and 2009.
“If we maintain the level of program that we’ve got, we can see more of flat line or an up tick potentially (in recidivism),” Roberts said in January. “Of course, as we add more inmates to the system over time that’s going to exacerbate the problem.”
Despite the decrease in recidivism, Roberts said projections indicated the state’s inmate population would increase from about 8,800 in 2013 to about 9,600 by 2022.
Like anything the budget remains on careful watch when looking at the inmates within the state system. In February, the Kansas House approved a $390 million budget for state prisons and program for the Department of Corrections.
“The budget has always been a concern for the DOC since the 1980s and so has spending. Plus we’ve really turned our focus to evidence based programs to reenter society safely,” Barclay said.
Even with many of the challenges, in the Governor’s mind the Department of Corrections meets the high standards.
“I think they overall do a very good job,” he said. “It is a tough field. You have a lot of people that done a lot of bad things and dysfunctionality and you try to locate it in one place.”
Ryan McCarthy is a University of Kansas senior from Lenexa majoring in journalism.