Find Bill
Find Your Legislator
Legislative Deadlines
March 29, 2024
RSS Feed Permanent URL -A +A

Minutes for SB102 - Committee on Judiciary

Short Title

Requiring earlier notice of anticipated release from custody of a person who may be a sexually violent predator to the attorney general and a multidisciplinary team and specifying where such person will be detained during civil commitment proceedings.

Minutes Content for Tue, Mar 16, 2021

Chairperson Patton opened the hearing on SB102.  Natalie Scott provided an overview of the bill. (Attachment 5)

Proponents

Derenda Mitchell testified in support of SB102(Attachment 6) Ms. Mitchell stated her office has been working with the Kansas Sheriffs’ Association (KSA) for many years on ways to reduce the burden that the process of commitment places on our county jails. The bill before the commirrww today is an attempt to address some of these concerns, and they believe it will be good public policy to transition more smoothly individuals serving their sentences in the Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC) to undergo the legal process of commitment during their sentence and be transported to jail only if their sentence expires before an adjudication is final.

Sheriff Jeff Easter testified in support of SB102(Attachment 7) Sheriff Easter summarizes his testimony by stating The length of time between release from DOC and admission to the Sexually Violent Program (SVP) unit at Larned State Hospital can be dramatically reduced or, in some cases eliminated, by moving the time of notice to the Attorney General forward by enough time to allow most court determinations to be completed prior to prison release. This is also better for the person involved by eliminating the gap or delay in the start of SVP treatment and potentially shortens the time they may be safely returned to society. The overall cost of housing and care for persons awaiting sexually violent predator determination will not be significantly changed by this bill. That cost will be borne by the taxpayers no matter how we change the process. However, if this bill is passed, the cost will be spread over the taxpayers statewide instead of a small set of taxpayers in the various counties. This can be significant to counties with small populations.The annual cost of holding and care of each person being held pending sexually violent predator court determination would average about $0.013 per resident spread over the state. While that cost for any single county would range from $0.065 per resident to $28.12 per resident depending on the county population. Catastrophic medical expenses are encountered every couple of years and have cost from between $35,000 annual average to over $200,000. Again, this cost can be devastating for small population counties..

Neutral

Randall Bowman provided neutral testimony for SB102. (Attachment 8) Mr.Bowman wanted to be sure the membership understands the impact of the bill. It will impact the treatments needs of the individuals impacted by this bill. SB102 moves the time frame for KDOC to refer cases to the Attorney General for consideration for filing under the Sexually Violent Predator Act (SVPA) from 90 days pre-release to 24 months pre-release. Their understanding from discussions with the Attorney General and stakeholders in the law enforcement community is that a benefit would be derived for local jails, through reduced bed days, if persons were civilly committed by the courts closer to the end of their prison sentence with KDOC, or even before. This would reduce or eliminate days these persons spend in county jail during the court process.

Opponent Written

Jennifer Roth on behalf of Kansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (Attachment 9)

Chairperson Patton asked if there were any additional individuals wanting to provide testimony on SB102.  Being none, he closed the hearing.