Kansans want community-based alternatives to incarceration. Let’s fund them.
As vaccine distribution ramps up, we find ourselves in a moment of hope for what’s ahead. For the first time in over a year, gathering with our loved ones and sending our kids back to school and connecting them to community resources feels more in sight each day. For incarcerated youth in Kansas, however, that reality is no closer.
Despite undeniable public support for reinvestment programs in the youth justice system, our public officials are considering cutting funds that were dedicated to funding programs that promote prevention and rehabilitation.
In 2016, Kansas made an unprecedented shift in the mission of the youth justice system with the passage of Senate Bill 367. The bill spread hope throughout the state, re-connecting youth with minor offenses with their families, and giving community-based programs a chance to receive money to strengthen their service to local communities.
Instead of continuing the broken approach of taking young people away from their communities and placing them behind bars, Kansans started to see that a better system is possible. Reducing incarceration led to a redirection of funds that would be used to meet the needs of children and families for years to come. Today, the juvenile justice fund holds $40 million to invest in reimagining the juvenile justice system.
Legislators created provisions in Senate Bill 367 to protect this money — a “lockbox” — to keep it from being used for other purposes. During those debates, Gov. Laura Kelly — then Sen. Kelly — voiced her concern that the funds would be raided by the governor to pay for other things. Yet, now the governor is leading the charge to do exactly what she feared.
These reinvestment funds are not a pawn to be used in budget negotiations; they are funds promised to our communities. Kansas families continue to pay the long-term dividends charged for what legislatures do in the moment to cover their own shortfalls. Sweeping the funds may produce a short-term gain for the state budget, but taking the money out of this account would eliminate any possibility for meaningful reforms of the youth justice system.
In addition to traumatizing our young people, Kansas’s broken youth justice system is incredibly expensive and ineffective. In Kansas, it can cost $113,000 a year to incarcerate one young person, but only $10,000 a year for public education. In the long term, divesting from youth incarceration and investing in community-based supports just makes fiscal sense and provides young people with the support they need.
Community and youth leaders have been making their voices heard about where funds are needed. Communities are in desperate need of more substance abuse and mental health services. We need youth justice crisis intervention centers. The National Juvenile Defender Center just issued a scathing report about the juvenile defense system in Kansas. Investing in much needed reforms will help kids directly by ensuring their proper defense and routing them away from the deepest parts of the system.
Yet again, we see legislators breaking their promise to underserved populations. Black and brown communities are those most impacted by the youth justice system in Kansas, and the sweeping of reinvestment funds would be devastating. Every child deserves the opportunity to realize their dreams, and we need these funds to bring us one step closer to making that a reality.
It is imperative for the Kansas Legislature to keep its word to our communities. Protect these dollars. Engage our communities. Invest in the support that our struggling young people need. And reap the reward of effectively breaking the poverty and incarceration cycle that exists in far too many families across Kansas.
Nichole Lee is campaign manager for Progeny, a youth adult partnership focused on reimagining the juvenile justice system.