Kansas community corrections urges modest FY27 boost, warns against cuts to reinvestment funds

Randy Regier, director of Reno County Community Corrections and president of the Kansas Community Corrections Association, told the joint committee that community corrections supervises moderate to high‑risk felony probationers and “offers a great return on investment,” citing Department of Corrections data that prisons cost nearly $110 per day while community supervision cost about $11.41 per day.

Regier said community corrections programs are county employees paid in part by KDOC grants and guided by local advisory boards, and that Reno County’s recent outcomes illustrate the savings and public‑safety benefits the programs can produce. He said Reno County supervised 125 successful completers last year, producing roughly $14.5 million in avoided incarceration costs just from those completions, and noted a statewide six‑year success rate of about 72.4 percent.

Why it matters: Community corrections functions as the intensive‑supervision option for people who might otherwise be sent to prison under sentencing guidelines. Regier told lawmakers that investing in supervision, behavioral‑health grants and competitive wages helps reduce prison admissions and is more cost‑effective than incarceration.

Regier asked the legislature to include two modest enhancements in FY27: $728,000 to support community corrections supervision (chiefly to keep up with inflation and sustain competitive wages and supplies) and $1.5 million to restore and expand behavioral‑health grant funding that has been flat since FY14. He said the behavioral‑health grant must be spent on mental‑health, substance‑use, and behavior‑change interventions and that flat funding has reduced buying power and service capacity.

Regier also described gaps that limit some diversion programs’ reach. He said the felony drug diversion program under Senate Bill 123 (the RAFT/diversion program) funds treatment through the Kansas Sentencing Commission but in many counties there is no funding to supervise people on diversion, so those responsibilities fall to community corrections. He suggested KDOC grant funds or opioid settlement dollars be made available to supervise SB123 diversion participants so supervision does not fall unevenly on counties.

On juvenile policy matters (House Bill 2329), Regier said his association supports keeping judicial discretion for youth intake and opposed a blanket statutory requirement that youth in possession of a firearm must be detained. He also opposed raising the allowable cumulative detention days from 45 to 90, saying agencies report most youth do not reach the current 45‑day cap.

Several committee members pressed for more data. Senators asked how the $11.41 figure is calculated (Regier said it is total grant funds divided by number of people supervised and that DOC’s report provides the prison per‑diem figure) and sought better statewide recidivism and revocation statistics. Regier said the Sentencing Commission and DOC hold much of the suggestive data but that data conversion and system changes have caused gaps.

Context and next steps: Regier said community corrections directors worked with KDOC on a proposed allocation methodology for distributing grant funds; KDOC has delayed implementation and will seek a third‑party review. The association supports a transparent formula, prefers a university evaluation rather than restarting from scratch, and recommends phasing in funding changes over three years to avoid destabilizing local programs.

Regier closed by reiterating that community corrections provides services (evidence‑based supervision, transportation to treatment, limited payments for medications and housing) targeted to criminogenic needs and that shifting resources to community supervision reduces pressure on the higher‑cost prison system.