Kansas bill would raise secretary of correctionsreimbursement cap for inmates to $750, require notice for larger claims

House Bill 22— would raise the statutory maximum that the secretary of corrections may reimburse an inmate for personal injury or loss of personal property caused by state negligence from $500 to $750 and require inmates to provide notice to the secretary for claims exceeding $750.

The measure was discussed at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, where a bill brief explained the statutory framework. The reviser said the bill amends KSA 46920, the statute authorizing the secretary to reimburse inmates for personal property or personal injury caused by negligence, and noted that claims exceeding the statutory maximum are submitted to the Joint Committee on Claims Against the State (KSA 46907), which the bill does not change.

State Representative Susan Humphreys, vice chair of the Special Claims Against the State Committee, testified in support and described the bill as an efficiency change rather than a broad policy shift. Representative Susan Humphreys said the special claims panel currently receives a large volume of inmate claims and, "about 85% of our claims come from inmates who are in the Department of Corrections." She told the committee many of those claims involve relatively small items, and that raising the reimbursement cap would let the Department of Corrections resolve more claims administratively: "So by raising it to $750 and saying in here that they must ... provide notice to the secretary, it keeps the special claims against the state from hearing so many claims. So it's kind of a time saver."

Humphreys gave examples of items inmates commonly claim were lost or damaged: "their MP4 player's missing, their tennis shoes are missing ... sometimes jewelry, glasses ... food items that they bought from the canteen." She said the $500 limit was set “around 20 years ago or so” and that the special claims committee recommended the increase to $750.

Senators asked about the selection of the $750 figure. Humphreys said the committee recommended that number as a reasonable increase given how long the cap had been unchanged. Senator Reichman asked why $750, and Humphreys replied, "$7.50 just seemed like the right... The committee ... made this recommendation for a bill, and that's the number that they came up with." (first reference uses full name and role as required.)

The bill also would require an inmate to provide notice to the secretary of the nature, time, date and place for claims exceeding $750; the reviser clarified that failure to provide that notice would not prevent the Joint Committee on Claims Against the State from considering the claim.

No committee action or vote on the bill was recorded at the hearing; proponents testified and senators asked questions before the hearing closed.

The hearing record includes statements from correctional claims committee members that many small-dollar claims go directly to the special claims committee rather than being handled first by Department of Corrections staff, producing repeated administrative work for legislators hearing those matters.

What happens next: The hearing closed without recorded committee action during the segment of the transcript reviewed.