TOPEKA — A bill changing how courts impose jail time on consecutive sentences and limiting who will be released on bond passed the House despite concerns about how much it will increase costs and remove judicial discretion.
House Bill 2444 addresses multiple issues, including limiting how days spent in custody while awaiting trial are applied toward consecutive sentences, limiting judicial discretion to release a person on their own recognizance, and requiring bonds of specific dollar amounts based on the crime the person allegedly committed.
On Monday, the House passed the bill 85-37 along party lines, concurring with Senate amendments and sending it to the governor for consideration. The Senate passed the bill Thursday on a 34-6 vote.
Rep. Dan Osman, an Overland Park Democrat, opposed the bill’s passage, pointing to projected costs to the state general fund in excess of $1.5 million each year.
The Kansas State Board of Indigents’ Defense Services “is expecting that their costs are going to increase by $800,000, and that alone is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
Osman said the Legislature is “putting our thumb on the scale” in a way that will encourage more people to seek a jury trial rather than plead because the bill changes sentencing.
“HB 2444 would replace discretion with blanket policy, upend other policy choices made by the Legislature, and result in more trials,” said public defender Jennifer Roth in testimony for a hearing earlier this year. “HB 2444 would take away discretion from district court judges in a sweeping fashion.”
Roth said the Legislature has “crafted a list of mitigating factors” that allowed judges to depart from sentencing guidelines, including factors for survivors of abuse, people with physical or mental impairments, and veterans.
“HB 2444 would prohibit a departure, regardless of the situation,” she said.
Osman on Monday called the bill “problematic” and said it would require more prison beds be available, noting that Senate changes shifted the bill to add 220 beds by 2036 — 124 of those next year.
“This is the highest we’ve seen for any bill this session — the highest we’ve seen for any bill for multiple sessions,” he said. “You can’t shove that off to the next Legislature and say it’s their problem to sort out. It’s our problem too. When you have bills that impact the prison bed space this dramatically … it is a certainty we are going to need to build new prisons because of this bill, and we’re not going to do it.”
Osman said there were no funds allocated to build new prisons to meet the needs of HB 2444.
