The cost of enforcing the law

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Tougher sentencing laws and reduced prisoner programming budgets have Kansas officials discussing ways to balance the need to protect the public against efforts to reduce the state’s burgeoning prison population, Kansas Corrections Secretary Ray Roberts said.

A recent count found Kansas men’s prisons are housing 8,635 inmates, 266 over capacity. The state’s prisons are projected to be short about 2,000 beds in a decade, according to the Kansas Sentencing Commission. Prisons for women also will exceed capacity in about seven years, the commission said.

The solutions being considered would keep the public safe while releasing some prisoners sooner than planned or keeping them out of prison in the first place, Roberts told The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/tvMi9l ). So far, Kansas is not considering mass releases of prisoners.

Roberts has a mix of three broad options in mind: build more prisons, house prisoners in county jails or cut recidivism by helping paroled prisoners. Each idea would cost millions of dollars, he said.

Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome Gorman said police and prosecutors won’t let up in efforts to bring prisoners to trial.