A thoughtful resolution on boys ranch

Shortly before their contentious 2016 budget debate went so wrong, Sedgwick County commissioners unanimously settled the controversy over the shuttered boys ranch by doing right by taxpayers and, more important, by youthful offenders.

It had been hard to see the 53-year-old Judge James V. Riddel Boys Ranch at Lake Afton shut down last summer, after a frustrating dispute over funding that had stretched to the Kansas Legislature and become a political issue. Though the ranch’s ability to help kids and prevent recidivism and crime was undisputed, the state didn’t want to pay more to house and serve offenders in state custody. With the facility also in need of millions of dollars of renovation, the commission was persuaded by then-County Manager William Buchanan to shut down the ranch rather than keep increasing county taxpayers’ subsidization of it.

But the closing wasn’t the end. For a while it looked like the new majority of commissioners, including two who had campaigned last fall on their opposition to the closure, would not be deterred from reviving the ranch as part of the 2016 county budget.

But new information continued to cast doubt on the fiscal responsibility of that goal, including a February report that reopening would cost $5.5 million. Officials at Wichita’s USD 259 also expressed concern, because educating the boys at the ranch had cost the district $700,000 a year.

Might there be a better way? It turns out there was, and that the County Commission was open to it as presented by county corrections director Mark Masterson.

Rather than house and treat several dozen at-risk boys at a facility overdue for repairs, the county could focus its resources on programs to help boys and girls improve their social skills, moral reasoning and problem-solving and the like – the tools for success in life.

“The programming addresses criminal thinking, values and attitudes, anger management and skill-building to change behavior,” Masterson told commissioners in July.

So all five commissioners approved a $437,400 plan for 2016 to serve juvenile offenders not at a reopened, county-run ranch but by investing in programs that will work directly with about 100 troubled teens a year. One goal is to serve these offenders close to home, rather than see them end up at juvenile facilities around the state. Engaging families in the rehabilitation will be key to the new approach.

The program, aimed to start this fall, will carry on the name of Judge James V. Riddel. It promises to strengthen the county’s juvenile justice system, which costs taxpayers more than $12 million a year.

The future of the ranch complex remains up in the air, though it’s in the mix in siting a new joint law enforcement training center. It still could end up as a privately operated facility that would expand the local capacity for housing and rehabilitating young offenders.

“This is a very good thing for our community,” said County Commission Chairman Richard Ranzau, reflecting on the “long, contorted route” to this point.

Informed by the best practices in juvenile justice today, the thoughtful resolution promises to deter recidivism and promote public safety.

For the editorial board, Rhonda Holman

This story was originally published September 5, 2015 at 7:06 PM with the headline "A thoughtful resolution on boys ranch."