4
Thursday, April 24,1975
University Daily Kansas
KANSAN
Editorials, columns and letters published on this page reflect only the opinions of the editors.
opinions of the writers.
Family TV tried
Our country's television moguls are at it again.
Again they have waved their magic wands over the bob tube wasteland and now they tell us that the result will be "one of the most exciting periods in television history."
All the hoopla is over the "Family Hour," or "family viewing time." Next fall, we are told, television from 6 to 8 p.m. will be aimed at the entire family. No sex or violence or Archie Bunker.
"The "Family Hour," which is really two hours, is a brainchild of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). The NAB, a voluntary association of broadcasters, conceived the "Family Hour" to help congressional action against television sex and violence.
Only those stations that are members of NAB, about two-thirds of the country's stations, will be
affected immediately. That the effect will be a TV renaissance, as some enthusiasts claim, is doubtful.
Once before, in 1970, we were promised an exciting period in television history. That was when the Federal Communications Commission passed the prime-time access rule, which in turn over to local television stations the most important slot. Instead of improved local programming, however, we got "Bowling for Dollars," "The New Price is Right" and "The New Truth or Consequences."
We can hope, however, that the "Family Hour" won't mean more take-offs on "The Waltons" at 7 p.m. to be followed by intensified violence at 8, when the kids are supposed to be in bed.
In the real world, kids don't go to bed at 8. In the real world, television never seems to get much better.
—Steven Lewis
Be kind to your IRS man
Bv CARL ROWAN
I want to warn you against all that advice you're suddenly reading about what to do if the tax office asks to audit your income tax.
people with pury credentials, like degrees in tax law or accountancy or a diploma from a school of finance. You're going to need someone from someone with real credentials (yours truly), who
Those articles are written by
has gotten through audits in nine of the last 10 years without being indicted.
OPERATION LEPRECHAUN
Rule 1: Don't act paranoid.
Show pride that you're getting
all that attention, especially if
Overhaul of failing prisons supported
By DAVID OLSON
Kenyon Staff Reporter
Kansas State Reporter
Everyone in the state should penal reform groups say, to indicate that this country's prison system has failed in its assigned uks. What is needed is a new approach to the problem.
"Prisons are probably incapable of being operated constitutionally, are themselves destructive of the keepers as well as the kept," Milton Rector, president of the National Council on Terrorism (NCDC), said in a recent visit to Topeka.
WHEN RECTOR said prisons largely hadn't done what they were supposed to do, he had an alternative in mind. Two examples of that alternative cited by Rector are:
A doctor who was convicted of selling illegal drugs was sentenced to practice medicine in Tombstone, Ariz., instead of to jail. Tombstone was previously without a doctor.
A plumber in New Jersey was sentenced to provide free water for five years to welfare families who couldn't afford the services. The plumber was jailed and his dollars worth of copper tubing.
groups around today. The national council is a 70-year-old organization with a professional staff of 130.
These two cases are indicative of a recent nationwide trend in penal reform that has left many community service work as an
In his lobbying junket to Topeka, Rector said the major planks of the NCCD's platform were a plea for a moratorium on new prison construction, an effort to improve community service work. More probation and suspended sentences, deferred conviction on consent, fines and restitution would be major parts of the plan. The idea, Rector said, was to reduce the present prison notification.
"The TIME has come to question why we need to imprison the nondangerous offender," he said. "Time and experience have shown that prisons don't and can't meet the standards. They don't rehabilitate or correct. They deter very little crime and in the long run they don't protect society."
imprisonment has a negative impact on a person's life," Ed Soule, executive director of the state council, said recently in an interview. "Don't incarcerate people who
THEER ARE similar organizations at the state level, one of which is the Kansas Council on Crime and Delinquency. The state council has its office in Topella, where it offers workshops on crime and lobbies directly in the Kansas Legislature.
"Levy a fine, but keep people out of prison. The longer the person is in prison, the more likely he will have trouble when he returns to society."
alternative to incarceration.
Prison reform groups are saying today that community service should be used to rehabilitate those offenders who aren't dangerous.
The criteria used to judge whether an offender is dangerous haven't been fully developed yet, Rector and others have conceded. The NCCD is calling for increased research to help a judge determine if someone has convicted of a crime is considered a good rehabilitative risk.
In general terms, Rector said nondangerous offenders were those whose crimes didn't involve violence—bad check writers, income tax evaders, burglaries. The violent offenders, should remain in prison, should remain in prison, the science of rehabilitation has advanced to the point where they can be helped, too.
and return to the community as promptly as practicable."
An even more dramatic change occurred in Wisconsin, where today 90 per cent of all convicted felons are on the street, according to Rector. He said Wisconsin prison leaders have been very vocal in favor of smaller, community-oriented institutions.
TWO YEARS AGO, the Oregon Legislature revised sentencing procedures, and the rate of sentencing persons to penal institutions dropped from 30 to 14 per cent. The average sentence dropped from two to one a half to one and a half years.
As a part of that goal, S.B. 72 stipulates that all males sentenced to Kansas prisons must be admitted to the Diagnostic Center in Topeka for a diagnostic workup. A diagnostic workup is a clinical evaluation of the offenses mental and physical health.
Rector represents one of the most active penal reform
GEORGE THOMPSON,
director of the diagnostic
center, said that the institution
could handle 102 patients
comfortably, but that since S.B.
72 went into effect the
population had been as high as
145.
The diagnostic center is the key to a set of proposals of both the national and state councils on crime and delinquency to allow judges more adequate information on the offender before sentencing. A judge can order a pre-sentence investigation, which is done at the community level and involves laws to determine the social background of the offender.
don't need to be in prison. Don't manufacture hardened criminals out of desperate fathers, out of bad check writers, out of first offenders. Once they come back into society they never hope to harm them ever becoming productive citizens."
Soule said the state council's position on new prison construction was more moderate than that of the NCCD.
"We're saying if the offender had a more comprehensive presentence workup in the community, then the judge could make a more realistic sentence of the individual and the judge could make a more realistic sentence of the individual really needed a full psychiatric evaluation at the diagnostic center," Soule said.
Soule said the latest penal reform in Kansas came in the form of Senate Bill 72, passed in February, that requires nature and in effect since July 1.
According to S.B. 72, "Persons committed to the institutional care of the secretary of corrections shall be dealt with humanely, with efforts directed to their rehabilitation
THE LEGISLATION created a Department of Corrections, with a cabinet-level secretary as chief administrator. It also established a citizen's advisory board to make recommendations on prison reform to the judge and the secretaries of correctional agencies, and also provided for an ombudsman to report directly to the secretary.
"We think before you get to the question of building institutions, you've got to explore what you can do at the community level and what services can be provided there," he said.
"This doesn't precclude the need for a new institution but it only says before we put up the brick and mortar let's know what program we're going to operate."
THE PROBLEM centers on the lack of probation personnel to provide manpower for more cases. The program evaluations, according to Soule.
"Some communities do an excellent job of pre-sentence evaluation right now. Our proposal would spread this throughout the state of Kansas and provide qualified probation officers for pre-sentence evaluations in the community," he said.
Rector told Raines and other prison officials that if more pre-immunization work goes the field, the diagnostic center would be freed to carry out research to classify offenders and determine the center for pre-sequence investigation.
However, there is a disagreement that the 11 additional probation officers will be able to do more pre-sentence evaluations. Robert Raines, secretary of corrections, said last week the officers would be needed for other work.
"The 11 additional officers were intended to beef up the parole staff and reduce some of the problems," he allows us to create some supervision levels in the field." Raines said. "It wasn't for this intention of doing more pre-release work, although we would take this into consideration. But there's no way we could take the thing to its entirety the way I think the council is hoping it will go."
BUT RAINES said the diagnostic center couldn't be all things to all people.
"You have one unit that doesn't have sufficient bed space, and you have multiple services that everyone wants that unit to provide," he said. "Therefore you're unable to do a good job at anything because of the lack of space to do it."
The Department of Corrections will look for federal grant money to implement a long range study of priorities and goals within the department, Raines said.
hundred people on post-sentence, plus a possibility of as many as 1,800 on pre-sentence if the courts see fit to send all these cases to us. We aren't equipped, facility or staffwise, to carry out that section of the law."
"We've recommended that
There are those, however,
who say it's not a lack of funds that is hindering the prison reform effort in Kansas but a lack of administrative leadership.
Forrest Swall, professor of social welfare at the University
"The time has come to question why we need to imprison the non-dangerous offender. Prisons don't rehabilitate or correct."
we have bed space for 200 people, plus bed space for women (who aren't allowed to go to the center before they graduate) and also a 75-bed psychiatric ward," he said.
Thompson agrees with prison reform groups in that he believes a pre-sentence report should be completed in the field based on face to face contact with those who know the offender. However, he said that would be an ideal situation and for those cases would make it nearly impossible to complete a good pre-sentence investigation on everyone.
"We were averaging around 800 people a year here," Thompson said. "According to S.B.72, we can expect 11 to 12
"There hasn't been any progress in prison reform," he said. "It isn't a lack of funding. Funding is the excuse that is used. Administrative leadership is the answer."
of Kansas, is a member of the Citizen's Advisory Board created by S.B. 72 and is one of the three cochairs of the present reunion set.
SWALL SAID S.B. 72 changed the organization of the corrections department but didn't change any programs or provide for more rehabilitative programs.
The main objective of prison reform groups today is to keep the nondangerous offender out of prison, he said.
said, "Levy a fine or restitution, but keep people out of prison. There is no study that shows that length of sentence, even in the best of institutions, is effective. The longer the person is tried, the more likely he will have trouble when he returns to society."
"We're trying to keep people out of prison so they may keep their jobs and families," Swall
Leaders in the Department of Corrections are more optimistic, and of course, say the form is evident in Kansas.
Raines said, "I think we need a comprehensive plan, because here in Kansas everything has been done piecemeal. You need some longrange objectives to accomplish a good correctional facility. It is committed to a good correctional system. We need plans to justify the funding and direction we want to go."
THOMPSON SAID, "I've spent a lot of time during my career in corrections other states, and I feel at this time KANSA does not have to take a back seat to anybody. We need them, and we will provide the funds that are needed to carry out the mission of S.B. 72. I believe Kansas has taken a tremendous step in terms of alternatives for the ones we feel whose needs can be met by resources outside the prison system, for the ones who
the agent is nice enough to visit you at home.
"Do come in," you say with a smile. "I presume those other eight agents passed along the word as to what the job is and where we keep the coffee and sugar."
It it seems the only thing everyone can agree with is that no one really knows how to rehabilitate criminals. Until that time, prison reform will be forced to struggle under the burdens of inadequate funding and divergent leadership.
A wife who really wants to save you some time (like five to eight) might even bake a few cookies before you arrive. The man arrives in.
Rule 2: Be sure the auditor is totally relaxed before you talk about anything as irritating as money.
Rule 3: Learn to figure out quickly when you're in trouble. For example, when your wife bursts into the house in her new fur and asks cheerfully, "Has he gotten around to okaying our deduction for that rip to southern Spain?"
You should know, though, that my careful survey reveals that only two IRS agents out of nine will accept coffee and cookies, and that the nine seems to like the brand of booze in our little household.
"IF YOU happened to go to that IRS school where they taught you to drink whisky", you might say, "instead of a Tennessee Stump Juice and branch water."
BUT THERE are subtler things to watch. Beware of the agent who accepts your sweet rolls and coffee. Any agent who isn't worried about your accusing him of taking a bribe is more likely to have trouble. The two aforementioned agents gobbled up everything my wife could drag from the refrigerator, then proceeded to ask things such as this. **$2.25 deduction for a person** *personal things like love letters were typed on that ribbon?"*
(Here's where it pays to keep your cool. You say, "Oh, my wife must have records on that, but I'll accept whatever
SO WHEN HE tells you that he'll have to reduce $2,000 for education your wife claims for the reduction the Salvation Army, just let a couple of tears trickle down. But does abuse him verbally trigger his reaction?
Rule 4: Remember that IRS auditors come in all sexes, shapes, sizes, colors and degrees of skill. They are human too. But don't be so nervous you notice that you show him how expertly last year's agent probed into your affairs. Sometimes the ones who seem to probe the least are digging the deepest. I recall one fellow who spent two days writing down data from every check on three accounts over a solid year. When the return in order, was fired a few days later, and a new agent came out to do the audit all over again.
number IRS has in my "Operation Lepechau" file." If an agent is so uptight he refuses to take even a cup of coffee, you can be pretty sure you don't have much to worry about. He has already decided he can't lay a paper on you. He'll be content to nickel and collect your exten of collection enough for his own salary for the time spent at your place. But he's really eager to get to more profitable customers.
RULE 5: Don't get jaded by the monotony of these agents showing up year after year. After the eight visit or so you sometimes have to think in advance of new ways to sound spontaneous in welcoming them.
This year I'm planning to say: "With all those exposures of enemies lists and Richard Nixon out of the White House, I was so afraid you neglect me this year. Come in, come! I'm so just thrilled to know you still care!"
Copyright 1975 Field Enterprises, Inc.
An All-American college newspaper
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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Published at the University of Kansas weekdays during the academic year except holidays and excursions. Attendance at Lawrence, Kan.: $6045. Subscriptions by small are $8. Subscription by large are $13. a $13 semester, paid through the student activity program.
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Editor John Pike Associate Editor Craig Stock Campus Editor Dennis Elworth
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Readers respond /Student opposes gun control
IN PONDERING IT, I couldn't help but be reminded of Supreme Court Justice Brandeis' warning that "experience on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the public realm of men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding."
Would you believe that I joined the National Rifle Association (NRA), but neither hunt nor use a firearm? Really I WOULD be believe that I would protect an own gun and use it for lawful purposes, and the NRA seems to be the only group around that is making an effort to preserve this right. (It is unfortunate that we have come to live in a society where one must enlist in groups to achieve our goals.) But that is with the American Association University Professors or the NRA. But that's the realism.) **NOW, TO ARGUE that I don't have a constitutional right to own a firearm is simply ignoring American history, for the British certainly didn't issue the American rebels the right to own a firearm.**
SOME OF MY liberal mentors argue that the private ownership of firearms should be outlawed because firearms kill more than 10,000 people killed yearly by automobiles that we have lost in foreign wars. Yet, nobody seems to want to outlaw the private ownership of autos. At odds with the possibility of owning a car this Physicians William C. Eller and Roger K. Haugen report in the New England Journal of Medicine that more people accidently choke to death on steak than are accidentally killed. This one follows liberal logic, the government should outlaw steaks and automobiles!
Hill (actually Breed's Hill). If one will review early state constitutions, and the other will review that that joining the state militias were required to provide their own arms. To put it another way, the private ownership of arms was required or joining many state militias.
If one considers the liberal ambience of John Pike's intellectual environment, his moderate editorial, "Gun laws extreme," April 10 Kansan) must have caused him considerable anguish. (Not to mention possible grade loss.)
IN THE WHILE gun issue the thing that upsets this student the most is the one you have to campus. For example, how many of you fellow students can recall having one of your liberal mentors who advocates gun controls ever mention Robert J. Kudla's book, "Gun Control," and another side of the controversies?
Well, I believe I have a constitutional right to bear arms and I shall do what I can
To the Editor:
At soon, efforts to usher Americans are certainly not new to our history. As early as 1637 one finds the General Court of Massachusetts denying 78 persons the right to own "guns, pistols, powder, shot and shotgun," as well as Puritanism. To me, this is akin to saying, "You can't publish the Kansan unless you become a sun worshiper." If the Constitution needs to be changed and the Second Amendment eliminated, I submit that it would require democratic process. This student has had enough of liberal efforts to regulate his rights out of existence.
to prevent more liberal regulation of my right. In this regard, it should be mentioned that James Madison and his nephew, Thomas Jefferson, the right of arms that it is second in the Constitution only to the rights of "freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the state," and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
Edward J. Paris Lawrence Special Student
To the Editor:
Gun control
In response to the Kansean editorial concerning handgun ammunition restrictions, I must explain that the gun was the effect that stronger gun
If sexu obje LA At Kami ship of s scul end E for a of depa At galle
controls are undoubtedly needed, particularly with regard to handheld types. I make distinction to handguns simply because purpose of these seemingly impertinent to use.
The justification for laws restricting firearms rests on the assumptions that:
—An unpopular and largely disrespected law indifferent to individual circumstance will generally be abided by otherwise law-abiding citizens. Experiences in alcohol and marijuana prohibition indicate otherwise.
A PERSON extremely impassioned or irrational could be prevented from committing mayhem with a firearm in a moment of a number of a numbered piece of paper registration. Insinuating comparisons of homicide rates between locations mandating differing penalties for neglects such factors as nonfirearm related murder rates and differing criminal justice practices. That identities of persons committing violent or violent passion are generally immediately established anyway would seem
—Those comparatively few gun users with criminal intent who would actually register their tools with police would not be barred from prosecution because they would have ruling in Haynes v. U.S., which states that such constitutes self-incrimination.
to negate the value of registration.
-The availability of guns will actually decrease. Experiences of underworld syndicate contraband acquisition and distribution potential indicate otherwise.
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utilit
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—Consistently and equally effective means of defense against armed attackers otherwise generally exist. To prematurally assume an intentionally deadly threat is only monetary gain is folly. The claim that in an average home the presence of a gun presents greater threat than an intruder demands that he be prevented from term “average”. Would this term describe a cautious suburbanite or an inner city shopper? Permit systems have a history, unfair discrimination, accidental misuse, and passion are preventable. Presumably criminal victimization isn’t.
—OURS IS A government meant to master the masses rather than serve the interests of the people, wearing of motorcycle helmets could be described similarly. Additionally, private opinion factors enter that the manufacturer owned firearms is the stated goal of the National Council for a Responsible Firearms Policy, achieved either in piecemeal fashion or otherwise, bears
Norman Martin
Overland Park Sophomore