SECTION TWO
FRIDAY DEC. 8,1989
County officials search for key to crowded jail
Inmates could be sent elsewhere
By Rich Cornell Kansan staff writer
Elbow space has become as scarce as sunlight in the Douglas County jail.
As some inmates rolled out sleeping mats in the jail's day area because the beds were full, county officials said two plans could eliminate crowding.
Loren Anderson, Douglas County sheriff, said some inmates could be sent to a jail in another county to relieve crowding in the local jail. He suggested planning that would provide a separate building for work-release inmates.
The jail, designed for 52 inmates,
bases more than 60 men and women
During the day, Anderson said, 15 to 20 inmates who participate in the county's work-release program leave the jail for full-time, paying jobs. They only occupy jail space at night. There are more inmates than beds.
"If it's really crowded at night, inmates can bunk in the day area," Anderson said. "I've talked to a number of inmates who speak favorably to other girls. We're not having any problems with the overcrowding."
The jail will face problems when the number of full-time inmates exceeds 32, he said. Now, about 45 inmates stay in the jail day and night.
Anderson said he expected problems within six months. In response, he included a clause in his departing budget this year that requested commission to finance the housing of inmates elsewhere if necessary.
"They kid of did this number," he said, rubbing his chin.
When he first approached county commissioners to discuss financing his plan, they said they did not know county could afford it, Anderson said.
The commissioners will probably support his plan when its necessity appears, he said. He has no other plan for dealing with the excess of inmates.
It would cost the county about $30 a day to send each inmate elsewhere, Anderson said. But sending them away would cost the county more costs to keep them here because of transportation and manpower costs.
Anderson said he had talked briefly to Rod Nally, Neoosho County sheriff, sending inmates to the jail there. He has committed to anything yet.
Hank Goodman, Neosho County undersheriff, said Sedgewick County officials were paying $90 a day to house three inmates in the Neosho jail. Goodman is looking for more inmates to house.
Anderson said several other jail administrators around the state were offering to keep inmates who were housed in crowded jails.
"There's enough of a market in this part of the state. They're seeing who'll pay what," he said.
County leery of cost
Chris McKenzie, Douglas County administrator, said Anderson's plan had merit.
"You can't help but come to the conclusion that we're at, or near, capacity all of the time," McKenzie said.
He said the commission could
finance the transportation of inmates elsewhere with contingency funds or by borrowing. Contingency funds are set aside for specific capital improvement needs that may arise.
McKenzie said he did not expect Anderson's plan to be put into effect until the next school year.
He said county officials were studying the possibility of building a work-release building, which also would eliminate crowding in the jail.
"I think it's very likely that this is going to happen," he said. "The commission will be to consider if fund to fund the agency funds. I'd prefer not to berry."
Louie McElihaney, county commissioner, said he wanted the voters to decide if the county could afford to send inmates to another county.
"I'm always in favor of putting things like that in front of the people to vote," he said.
McEhaney said he supported a new building for work-release inmates. Financing one would pose no problem to the county, but maintaining and staffing it might cost too much.
Mike Amyx, county commissioner, said he did not know if either plan should be adopted because the com- pondered had not studied them enough.
Plan works elsewhere
Johnson County officials already have sent some inmates elsewhere.
Inmates have been sent to Fort Scott, in Bourbon County, for seven years said Lt. Robert Johnston of the Johnson County Sheriff's Department.
The Johnson County jail capacity is 270 inmates, he said. It no longer meets the county's needs because of the area's growth.
"It's the only solution we have," he said. "We're in the planning stages of building a new one."
The arrangement with Bourbon County has worked out well, Johnston said. Ten Johnson County schools have been transferred from two to 10 months, are there going
Capt. John Zemites of the Johnson County sheriff's department said it cost $50 a day to hold each inmate in the Johnson County Jail, about the county spent to transport and house inmates in other counties' jails.
A total of 70 Johnson County in-
stitute among several several
Missouri laals, he said.
Annette Stenner/KANSAN
"It's far from the optimum way of doing this," Zemites said. "But it's the only thing we can do."
Alec Beth, Bourbon County jail administrator, said he charged Johnson County $28 a day to keep each inmate, $2 less than his usual rate. Johnson County officials have sent inmates to Bourbon County for so long.
The Bourbon County jail can hold 42 inmates, Beth said. Bourbon County has eight of its own inmates. Inmates from Johnson, Sedgwick and Wyandotte counties, however, make the total inmate count about 30.
Beth said inmates from other counties had difficulty keeping in touch with distant family members. Inmates at the Bourbon jail can have visitors from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays and from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Sundays. Inmates' children can visit them from 1 to 2 p.m. Sundays.
"We're as full as we comfortably operate," he said. "We have the luxury of having the comfort zone where we operate at."
Work-release program helps local offenders
By Rich Cornell
Kansan staff writer
A local judge and a court services officer agree that the Douglas County work-release program creates great better lives for themselves.
Jean Shepherd, Douglas County district court judge, said that through work-release, an offender could be released to a job. This boots self-esteem.
The program also can help an offender's family because the
inmate can continue to provide an income.
"Their families don't get put on assistance and put on that downward spiral," Shepherd said.
Although the crowden common of the jail concerns her, she said, it does not affect how she sentences offenders. She only sentences to the work-release program those are not a risk to the community.
Shepherd considers an offender's previous record, family history, the nature of the crime and
the state's statutes when deciding his sentence.
Intuition also plays a part.
"It's something you can't even name," Shepherd said. "I taught high school six years, and I think that helps. All those kids and all excusees. You see the same excuse here, but for different things."
Michelle Frasure, chief court services officer, coordinates presenting investigations to help the judge sentence the offender.
She said all inmates would benefit if a separate building was constructed.
"The other inmates can get kind of jealous, seeing people coming and going," Frasure said.
The combination of regular inmates and work-release offenders can create tension, she said.
In addition, she said, a new building would help control crowding, which inherently causes problems.
"When people are crowded, in or out of jail, they tend to get frustrated," Frasure said.
The three counties' jail officials come to Beth for help in alleviating crowding problems, not to save money, he said. His county, however, benefits from the extra money because it pays expenses.
"That's the only way we can really keep the doors open," Beth said.
New facility possible
9 Douglas County officials hope to open some new doors of their own.
Mark Matese, director of Douglas County's community corrections department, heads a committee developing a plan to build a facility for work-release inmates.
Matese said a separate facility would provide more rehabilitative treatment to inmates and alleviate the crowding.
"Just in the last year, it's been over capacity just about every day," he said. "We're overpopulated right now."
Removing low-risk, work-release inmates from the $2-bed jail would
provide more room for the other inmates, Matese said.
Matese and his committee members have been studying the possibility of building a structure that would house work-release inmates and a detention center, or halfway house, for recently released inmates of the jail.
The staff would teach classes, provide structure to inmates' lives, and help inmates find jobs. Matees said. Work-release teaches inmates that they have done something wrong and builds self-esteem.
Matese said he would present his plan to the county's advisory board sometime this month and would give it to the county commission next month.
Such a facility would offer the least expensive solution to the overcrowding of the jail, he said. Building a work-release structure would cost about $30,000 a bed, and building a new jail would cost $40,000 a bed. Maintenance would cost the same.
"I personally think there's a definite need," Matese said. "I particularly think that it's justified in terms of overcrowding."
Space would aid efforts
Community corrections would benefit from the new building as well, he department handles offenders sentence supervised probation with surveillance.
The offenders involved have been convicted of low-class felions, such as writing bad checks. They would have been sent to prison if they were not sentenced to the probation, Mattese said. The probation involves a four-step process that takes about two years to complete.
The offenders, Matese said, are watched by officers to determine if they are behaving as their probation requires. The program requires frequent interviews between the offending individuals and providing structure in their lives.
Matese said identifiable substance-abuse problems, found in 85 percent of the offenders, caused many to fail to meet their probation requirements.
The staff at a new structure would provide help to drug abusers, he said. Right now, community corrections cannot do enough.
"We're in the trenches fighting the war," Matese said. "We've been in the battle for years. I don't know if we need the resources to win at this level."
Community corrections also coordinates offenders sentenced to community service, he said. Each year, 1000 people receive service are performed in the county.
With a new building, Matese said,
the department could do more to help
offenders find permanent jobs after
 their sentence is completed.
“What we’re trying to do is build a factory to develop these people,” he said. “But we can do that is getting them to work and keeping them at work.”
Rural doctors need help in health care manpower shortage
By Melanie Matthes
Kansas staff writer
Kansan staff writer
On Thursday, Nov. 9, Stanley Handsby began a usual 12-hour day practicing medicine in rural southeast Kansas.
Just before 7 a.m., he started the 19-mile commute from his home in Erie to the hospital in Parsons.
By 10 a.m. the physician had completed a hysterectomy, seen nine patients in the Parsons hospital and visited with an assistant about an autopsy he had performed on a woman who had died in a car accident the night before. In addition to
Kevin Meaten/KANSAN
one of a dozen general practitioners in Neosho County, Handshy is the county coroner.
Handshy's practice is typical of many other physicians in rural Kansas, which is facing the growing problem of inadequate health care.
These communities are plagued by a lack of access to health care, shortage of manpower and statutes and regulations that rural health agencies said Steve McDowell, director of the Office of Rural Health (ORH).
To some rural physicians, these problems mean they work long hours and perform a wide variety of services for a large number of patients. But for many, the small town life is tough. The community outweigh the disadvantages of working in a small Kansas town.
To guide communities to a better
system of health care delivery, the Kansas' Department of Health and Environment in April created the ORH, McDowell said.
The office reviews and develops health care policies and proposals. Its most recent project was a series of meetings with rural health care providers from across the state. Through these meetings, ORH officials will establish an agenda for action on rural health care in Kansas. For physicians such as Handshy, the ORH means the problems of working in a medically underserved community are finally being addressed.
Just after 10 n. m., Handsby began another commute to his private practice in Thayer, where he treated about 14 patients.
During the lunch hour, he drove from Thayer to his practice in Erie where he treated patients until about 7 p.m.
Long days not unusual
For Handshy, most days are similar.
On Saturdays, he works about six hours. On Sundays, he only makes his hospital rounds in Parsons and Chamute.
"We've had two one-week vacations since I've been here," he said. "I've been here since 1983."
Handshy said he treated patients within a 65-mile radius. Some patients travel as far as 150 or 200 miles to see him.
The two closest hospitals are about 19 miles from Erie. In a county with a population of about 20,000, Handyshmets the medical needs of about 30 hospitals by commuting between medical communities and four communities. His duties range from sewing up open wounds to delivering babies.
See RURAL, p. 6A