Brief(1)
S.B. 516 amends criminal procedure and sentencing laws to include conservation camps established by the Department of Corrections (DOC) as a nonimprisonment sentencing option. The bill also authorizes the sentencing court to order offenders who are convicted of escape or aggravated escape to pay the costs incurred by law enforcement agencies in apprehending them. The bill also contains a provision to increase the reward the Secretary of Corrections could offer for assistance in apprehending an escaped inmate from $500 to $5,000.
K.S.A. 75-52,127 is amended regarding camps established by DOC to permit offenders sentenced to the camp, even though on probation, to be transferred to other DOC facilities, for certain services, and for offenders sentenced to the custody of DOC pursuant to an imprisonment disposition to be housed at a conservation camp.
S.B. 516 also provides that placement at a conservation camp established by DOC as a nonimprisonment sentencing disposition would not entail the loss of the civil rights of an offender. Finally, S.B. 516 changes the length of a conservation camp placement from 180 days to six months.
Further, the bill will not allow a confession or admission of a 14 or younger juvenile made without the presence of the parents, guardian, or attorney to be admitted into evidence. When the parent or guardian is the alleged victim or alleged co-defendant of the crime in question, a confession or admission must be made in the presence of an uninvolved parent or guardian. The bill also requires reasonable efforts to be made to contact the appropriate parent(s) or guardian.
Other Miranda type rights would also apply to juveniles such as the following:
Background
The bill was supported by the Secretary of Corrections.
The Senate on Final Action amended provisions of S.B. 519 into the bill dealing with payment of escape costs and increasing reward amounts.
Current law provides two statutory provisions relative to the establishment of conservation camps. K.S.A. 75-52,132 authorizes an agreement between DOC and the board of county commissioners for Labette County, and K.S.A. 75-52,127 authorizes DOC to establish conservation camps.
The bill allows DOC to utilize various services located at a correctional facility for offenders sentenced to the conservation camp. Rather than having to rely on local hospitals for the provision of infirmary care, or local jails for enhanced security detention, conservation camp participants could be transferred to a correctional facility for medical care or detention until the offender is able to be returned to the custody of the sheriff of the county in which they were convicted. Additionally, if the number of offenders eligible for the sentence reduction provided by K.S.A. 21-4603 and 21-4603d is insufficient to fill the conservation camp, DOC could place other offenders there whose custody level is consistent with the security provided by the camp.
S.B. 516 would permit a conservation camp established by DOC to provide the nonimprisonment sentencing option to female offenders. S.B. 516 would not, without additional legislative appropriations, create a boot camp operated by DOC, nor would it prohibit DOC from establishing such a boot camp through a private vendor.
The bill would have no fiscal impact on the state.
1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/fulltext-bill.html.