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Sedgwick County commissioners approve letter to Kansas Department of Corrections over new funding formula
Summary
At a special Sept. 25 meeting, the Sedgwick County Board of Commissioners authorized a letter to state leaders and KDOC objecting to a proposed adult community corrections funding formula that would cut the county's allocations by about 38'39% over three years, including a 51.7% reduction in a behavioral-health subpool.
Sedgwick County Board of Commissioners on Sept. 25 approved a letter to the governor, legislative leaders and the Kansas Department of Corrections asking for review and corrective action after state officials finalized a new adult community corrections funding formula that county staff say would cut Sedgwick County's funding by roughly 38'39% over three years. The board motion to approve the letter, including attachments and edits made at the meeting, passed by roll call vote (Bluebaugh, Wise, Nel, Meitzner and Chairman Beatty voted aye).
The letter and discussion summarize a timeline that county officials say began when KDOC staff discussed a draft formula with community corrections directors in December 2024, posted formula tables to directors by email on Jan. 6, 2025, and sent a final table on Sept. 8, 2025 with an implementation date of July 1, 2026. Rusty Leeds, assistant county manager, said Sedgwick County's share would fall by almost $2.1 million over three years and that the county is slated to lose about 51.7% of the mental-health/behavioral-health portion of the funds.
The letter asks for legislative oversight, an independent review (the county suggested an independent Kansas research university), phased adjustment caps so jurisdictions are not sharply defunded in a single year, and greater transparency in how KDOC developed the metric. "This table represented essentially the numbers that existed on the first table back in 01/06/2025," Leeds said, summarizing what staff called a nine-month rollout and limited substantive change after director feedback.
Steve Stonehouse, Sedgwick County Community Corrections Director, described who the program serves and how services are prioritized: "Everybody is a felon of some sort," he said, and levels of supervision and services are allocated based on risk assessments. Stonehouse and other staff said the county runs in-house behavioral health and substance-use services and drug court programming that are paired with supervision to reduce recidivism. Stonehouse told commissioners that steep cuts would force the department to reduce services and eliminate positions.
Sheriff Easter, who attended and spoke, said he found the formula and the funding shift "atrocious," noting that higher-resourced counties such as Johnson County stand to gain under the formula while Sedgwick County would face cuts even as some parolees are transferred into Wichita. "I am 100% in agreement with Steve's folks; it's gonna cut services, it's gonna drive our crime rates up," the sheriff said, urging coordinated county advocacy.
Commissioners recommended strengthening the letter to make clear the percentage reduction and local program context: that Sedgwick County supervises about 1,100 people in community corrections on an average day, with roughly 300'350 of those from outside Sedgwick County; that the county contributes significant local matching funds statewide; and that the county is the largest contributor among the 31 participating jurisdictions, according to commissioners' comments. Commissioners also asked staff to flag advisory committee members on the spreadsheet the county created, to show which jurisdictions stand to gain or lose under the draft formula.
County Counselor Justin Weidner explained the practical step to conclude the meeting: the board approved the letter and delegated to county staff to incorporate the commissioners' edits and finalize the document for signatures and distribution. The motion to approve the letter passed on a roll call: Commissioner Bluebaugh ' Aye; Commissioner Wise ' Aye; Commissioner Nel ' Aye; Commissioner Meitzner ' Aye; Chairman Beatty ' Aye.
County staff said next steps include finalizing the letter and attachments, circulating them to state leaders and the KDOC, and continuing coordinated advocacy with the sheriff's office, district attorney's office and the county's lobbyist in Topeka. Commissioners also asked staff to produce clearer public-facing charts and a one-page summary to accompany the letter for public information and outreach.
Why it matters: County staff and law enforcement told commissioners that the proposed cuts would reduce the county's capacity to provide in-house behavioral-health and substance-use treatment tied to supervision, and that fewer services combined with unchanged supervision caseloads could increase risk of reoffending. The letter seeks oversight and a phased approach that staff say is needed to avoid destabilizing community corrections services that currently aim to keep some people out of state prison while providing treatment and supervision.
The board heard public-sector and law-enforcement support for the letter during the meeting and authorized county staff to finalize and send it to the named state officials.
