With more prisoners and no place to put them, Kansas faces hard choices

Kansas is officially out of beds for male prisoners, with a population last week of 8,411 — above the system’s capacity of 8,259. So corrections leaders have started talking seriously about two options: Either find millions of dollars to house more prisoners or start letting them go.

A few years ago, Kansas had figured out how to control its prison population. It had solved the equation and become a national model.

No more. Kansas is officially out of beds for male prisoners, with a population last week of 8,411 — above the system’s capacity of 8,259. In 10 years, the state is projected to be nearly 2,000 beds short.

So Kansas corrections leaders have started talking seriously about two options: Either find millions of dollars to house more prisoners — at a time when the state is struggling to pay for schools and social services — or start letting them go.

Another option — crowding prisoners — would just lead to violence and lawsuits, prison officials say.

Many states, including Mississippi, have already retreated from years of tough crime laws. Kansas experts are looking at the Mississippi solution of making nonviolent offenders eligible for parole after they have served 25 percent of their sentences.

Another possibility suggested by the Kansas Sentencing Commission is to increase “good time” credit for some inmates from 15 or 20 percent to up to 50 percent, meaning prisoners who stay out of trouble could be released after serving half of their sentences.

But early releases in either form would violate promises the state made to those who have suffered at the hands of criminals, said Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome Gorman.

“I don’t know how we can do that to the victims of the state of Kansas,” he said.

Even nonviolent inmates such as drug addicts and burglars are mostly chronic criminals who will get out and cause trouble, he said, and the state is already failing to revoke parolees who should be put back in prison.

“They entrusted a job to police, prosecutors and judges and now they’re saying we don’t care about the effort,” Gorman said.

Wyandotte County District Court Judge Ernest L. Johnson, chairman of the Sentencing Commission, agreed that early releases would be a step back from the state’s sentencing grid system meant to impose consistent and true prison time.

“But what do you do when there isn’t enough money? You’ve got to change something,” he said.

Advocates of change point to a national poll released last month that seemed to indicate support for early releases.

“Our sense is the public has been out ahead of elected officials on this,” said Adam Gelb, director of the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Public Safety Performance Project.

In a project poll, 91 percent agreed with this statement: “It does not matter whether a nonviolent offender is in prison for 21 or 24 or 27 months. What really matters is the system does a better job of making sure that when an offender does get out, he is less likely to commit another crime.”

In Missouri, the situation is not as dire. The state does not face a projected bed shortage until 2013.

But the Missouri Sentencing Advisory Commission in August started providing judges with costs of sentencing options in cases. That was so judges could compare costs of prison and alternatives in nonviolent cases, officials said.

The Missouri commission also reports on risks of recidivism, which can increase when a low-level criminal is put behind bars, said Supreme Court Judge Michael A. Wolff, commission chairman.

“People who go to prison learn things in prison,” he said. “It’s time to talk rationally about how much punishment we can afford.”

A lighter hand by other cash-strapped states has turned a big corner, experts said. The overall number of inmates in state prisons declined last year for the first time since 1972.

Not in Kansas, however, where new admissions jumped more than 13 percent in the fiscal year ending in June.

From 2000 to 2009, Kansas’ prison population grew only 3.6 percent, the second-lowest growth rate in the nation. Only about a half-dozen states showed declines in those years. They acted early to reduce inmates, the Justice Policy Institute reported this year.

Roger Werholtz, Kansas secretary of corrections, explained what happened in that decade and possibly why the smooth ride ended for Kansas: In 2000, the largest source of new prisoners was parolees who committed new crimes or violated the conditions of their releases. Starting in about 2005, a bipartisan effort by lawmakers attacked that with programs for parolees, including education, substance abuse treatment and sex offender treatment. They also expanded home detention and started day-reporting centers and supportive housing for mentally ill and developmentally disabled offenders.

The yearly number of offenders returning to prison dropped from 55 percent in 2001 to 34 percent in 2008. Kansas got a reputation.

“Kansas has been the model; we were on top of it all,” said Rep. Pat Colloton, a Leawood Republican and chairwoman of the Joint Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice Oversight.

In the last two years, $8.2 million in cuts eliminated almost all those Kansas programs, but so far parolee-return rates have not gone up dramatically. Instead, most of the increase has come from new admissions.

Werholtz and other Sentencing Commission members offer suggestions on what happened:

•Since 2005, the Legislature approved 97 measures that increased penalties.

•County authorities have lost funding for alternative sentencing options, and judges may feel they have no option but prison.

•Although crime rates have held steady, better police work is catching more criminals.

Werholtz is requesting $8.2 million in next year’s budget to restore the parolee programs. Without that, he said, parolees will start going back to prison in higher numbers.

He also is requesting $6.6 million in the 2012 budget to house prisoners elsewhere. He also has options to add prison space, costing $5.4 million to $21.6 million.

Even the Mississippi solution could not be used in time to avoid growing shortfalls next year, he said. It would take too long to pass a controversial law, change protocols and hold parole hearings. It also would take too long to build prisons, even if the money were there.

Helen Pedigo, Kansas Sentencing Commission executive director, said expanding “good time” would be the fastest way.

Society needs to imprison people it is afraid of, not people it is mad at, she said.

The prison commissioner in Mississippi persuaded politicians of the same thing.

Colloton recently gave other Sentencing Commission members copies of a Governing magazine article on the Mississippi approach. The article credits Chris Epps, the state’s prison commissioner, with carving out success by working with an unlikely combination of Mississippi politicians and the American Civil Liberties Union.

As a team, Epps said Friday, they got passed a 2008 law to allow parole for nonviolent offenders after they served 25 percent of their time, instead of up to 85 percent.

They used a new risk-assessment tool to evaluate the nonviolent offenders case by case, and the Parole Board released about 60 percent of them, he said.

The net result in the first 14 months: About 3,100 inmates released an average of 13 months early, the closing of 13 prison units, a prison population decline of more than 2,000. The $348 million corrections budget in 2008 is down to $331 million now. That is $17 million saved instead of millions spent to build new prisons.

Experts report that 121 of the inmates released early returned to prison — only five of them for new crimes.

Margaret Winter, an attorney with the ACLU’s National Prison Project, had sued the state over prison conditions. She said the outcome was a win for everyone.

“Release those who don’t need to be there and you have more room for those who do,” she said.

Epps said he would soon use expanded home detention or other options to again control the population, which has started increasing at the rate of 35 inmates a month.

He said he would rather see the $40.67 daily cost for each inmate day spent on education.

“Our inmates come in with sixth-grade reading levels, and 80 percent have alcohol or drug problems or both,” he said. “I’d rather stop it on the front end.”

Gorman, the Wyandotte County prosecutor, sees it differently if prisoners in Kansas get out early.

“We promised all this truth in sentencing and then we’re saying, ‘We’re not going to be so truthful,’ ” he said. “Then people have lied to the citizens.”

When a new Kansas governor and Legislature go to work in January, they will face some tough choices.

Five Ways to Get Your Child Reading

 5 easy tips to turn your child into a voracious reader. My "expert" status? I love to read, I am a mom, and my daughter reads at two grade levels above her age. I may not be that awesome but employing these five little tips may have your child reading in no time.

My daughter is visiting her dad this summer (something she's done since our divorce) and I always worry that she will lose what she's learned the past school year (and from me) while she's living it up with him. That's not to say I think he will "dumb her down" but...well maybe its my Type A personality scooting to the front during the summer months.
This summer I have no worries, though. Yesterday I spent a fabulous 48 minutes on the phone with my little angel and during that time was treated to a reading from her. I am always amazed by how smart my Maggie is and tend to credit all of her influences, not JUST me; however, I can take pride in how well she reads, her inflection and comprehension, and her ability to use and pronounce the big words as well as the small ones.

The tips I've used are almost a no brain-er for me but I thought I would share what I consider 5 key ways for turning your child into a lover of the written word. With a healthy appetite for reading I believe anyone can do anything they put their mind to.

Tip # 1:
Be a reader and share your love with your child-All kids like to copy what they see others doing and if your child sees you reading often, he or she will want to as well.

Tip # 2:
Read to your child daily-I've been reading to Maggie since she was but a blob in my belly-Spend 10-15-20 minutes or more a day sharing a story with your child.

Tip #3:
Encourage your child to help you read the story you've chosen-Once your child is old enough to start recognizing certain words, let him or her become an active part of telling the story.

Tip # 4:
Seek outside help (workbooks and/or tutoring)-Don't be afraid to admit that you wish your child was a better reader. If the situation reaches a point where you need outside tutoring, there are plenty of ways to get it. Check out your local libraries, bookstores, and research on-line for great tools to get them reading.

Tip # 5:
Take time to hear a story and interact with your child-Once your child can read on his or her own, encourage private time (for them to read on their own) and time with them to hear their story. Help with big words--pronouncing and defining, teach proper inflection (e.g., reading questions, character conversations, etc.), and make this a fun part of your day.

Again, the above worked for us and I am consistently and amazed by my smart girl. I believe in nature AND nurture when raising a child, and this is one area where I can honestly say I had SOMEthing to do with her reading success. Oh, and don't forget to praise your child when he or she blows you away with this awesome reading ability! Good luck with raising voracious readers!!!

Forex Trading Market – Learning Forex By Reading?

The Forex market is possibly the largest economic market in the entire world.
Based on the gift studies, more than 85 percent of the day-to-day business operations include trading of the top monetary units such as the US dollar, Japanese Yen, Euro, British Pound and other major currencies.


“…This is a real 24-hour market, Forex trading starts everyday in Sydney, and goes around the globe, as the market day starts in every financial middle, primarily to Tokyo, London and New York. There is too much to learn about this greatly competitive, impulsive and delicate market that people may consider it a discouraging job. Therefore, people need to sort out books about forex trading to equip them to function well in the market.

Before you start any trading, you should first start familiarizing your Forex book. There are many Forex books available in most libraries and bookstore, which can be a fantastic help to you as you start with it. You can even find Forex e-books available in the internet…”

In an brilliant Forex book, there are no aggressive sales voices, no trickery, and invisible-free plot, but merely basic information. Forex book gives traders the skill to have an benefit on foreign currency exchange topics. Forex books will help investors to turn into brilliant forex traders.

In any Forex book, it is advisable that you do not devote in any market, the stock market, futures, mutual funds and others, until you devote in yourself first.

There are Forex books that provide traders not only with essential education but also with different trading strategies. These books are applicable for anyone to everyone, for the beginner and expert traders, assisting them gets the expertise, information and skills to effectively trade forex market.

Some of most widespread and greatly useful means to buy forex books are by joining seminars in which there are sample books that are being offered, and subscription services.(visit www.sureshotbooks.com) Of course, this is every depending upon the type of book you want, your inclination, ease of use and budget limitation. There is always something to fit nearly everybody.

Studying forex analysis via forex trading book will allow skilled traders and starters to deal with complete assurance and confidence. You can manage your possess winning forex trading trade part time or full time from home and produce cash flow in growing or declining markets. You can absolutely receive a fantastic earning on the Internet by educating yourself with the forex trading books.

“…The forex books brings a complete information of everyday transactions from the interactions of forex traders every over the world, brokerage firms, controllers and other parties concerned in these business that are not accessible anywhere else. The book will offer you headings and links to medium narratives, and notes, which provide you a simple to check and useful set-up, carried to you each day using the Internet.

But, the difficult thing about this is that most forex books on the topic includes dozens of practical study pointers or talks about macroeconomics. In the Forex book, it is expected that there is many filling that is not sufficiently focused on what a trader needs to achieve a profitable trade.  But, you do not have to worry that much in this case, since forex books can also be of fantastic use to you most especially when you are just a starter in the market…”.

5 Top Tips For Why Reading Is Important!

1. Reading is an active mental process that improves your concentration and focus:
It makes you use your brain; helping you to reason out things which are unfamiliar to you.

Reading is one of the most enjoyable hobbies a person can have. Although it's saddening to think that the majority of people aren't introduced to the fabulous world of books.

Since you must concentrate in order to read, this requires you to focus and think about what you are reading.

If you want to break the monotony of an uncreative and uninterested life, go and grab an interesting book. Turn the pages to explore new worlds filled with information and ingenuity.

2. Improves your discipline and memory:

Making time to read is something we all feel that we should do, but few of us schedule book reading time every day. But adding book reading to your daily schedule and sticking to it, improves discipline.

Studies show if you don't use your memory, it becomes more and more difficult to remember facts that you have read. Crossword puzzles are an example of a word game that staves off Alzheimer's.

Reading helps to stretch your memory muscles and requires you to remember details, facts and figures, plot lines, themes and characters.

It is really satisfying to look at a shelf of books and say, "I've read every one of those!"

Not only is the knowledge useful, but it is personally very rewarding as well.

3. Builds self-esteem and improves creativity:

The more you read, the more knowledgeable you become and with more knowledge comes more confidence. More confidence builds self-esteem.

Reading about the diversity of life and exposing yourself to new ideas and more information helps to develop the creative side of the brain and filters innovation into your thinking process.

So it's a chain reaction. When you are well read, people will look to you for answers. Then your feelings about yourself only get better. Even more confidence!

Reading about diversity of life and exposing yourself to new ideas and more information helps to develop the creative side of the brain as it imbibes innovation into your thinking process.

4. Reading improves your vocabulary and reduces boredom:

When you are reading books, especially challenging ones, you will probably find yourself exposed to many new words.

Remember when you learnt to read, how you learned to figure out the meaning of one word by reading the context of the other words in the sentence?

You will get the same benefits for building your vocabulary from book reading. So if you are feeling bored, then pick up a book and start reading.

If you're bored anyway, you might as well be reading a good book, right?

5. Gives you a glimpse into other cultures and places of the world, so you'll always have something to talk about:

Reading gives you an insight into the diversity of ethnicity of people, their customs and their lifestyles. You'll become more aware about different places and their codes of conduct in those places.

Ever found yourself in an embarrassing situation where you didn't have anything to talk about? How would you know about the life of people in Alaska if you hadn't read about it?

Want a remedy for this? It's simple. Start reading.

Reading really widens your horizon of information, so you'll always have something to talk about.

Ideally, reading should be split between fiction and nonfiction books. Fiction is definitely more exciting, but it does not yield long term knowledge benefits like nonfiction books do.

Wise Words!

"Not every reader is a leader, but every leader must be a reader."
Harry Truman.

"In our new knowledge economy, if you haven't learned how to learn, you'll have a hard time."

Peter Drucker

Relax and Pick Up A Good Book!

What is speed reading?

Is it just fast reading and nothing else? Of course it is the skill to read volume of words as you can per minute and be able to understand it. So it’s not just the heck of reading the words at all, it’s a matter of fast reading and comprehending what you read.


It is not inherent but it can be developed. Here is some self-help to speed reading for people who wants to develop the skill.

Studies has shown that the normal person’s average reading comprehension rate is about 75%.

When they tried speed reading, it reduces its reading comprehension to 50% or even less to some. This definitely beats the very purpose of reading, because comprehension and learning is compromised. So what then are the basics for effective speed reading?

Below is a handy self-help to speed reading. Check this out and try it out, if you want to develop the skill of it.

Scan the material first

It is best to scan the material before you start reading it so that you will have an idea of the topic at hand.

Best way to scan it is to read first the title, take in the paragraph heading and the overall length of the material. Comprehending what you read is very important. When you are done scanning you can proceed to the next step which is to decide how to tackle reading the material. Most prefer to spend a longer time on certain key paragraphs.

Focus on Keywords

Focusing on keywords is very helpful since you don’t have to read every word to get the idea. You can actually concentrate on the keywords and skip reading other words not so important like “the”, “an” and many more.

Re-reading words doesn’t apply in speed reading. It might be a common practice to everyone but it’s not advisable to re-read words when you are speed reading. The skill of skimming text might be hard to develop but it is not impossible either, it can be achieved with plenty of practice but when you have mastered the skill then you can achieve reading speeds up to 700 words per minute. Almost three times much faster than the normal reading speed of around 200 - 250 words per minute.

Practice is indeed important if you want to develop the skill of it. Get over this self-help to speed reading everyday and in no time you will be able to achieve your goal. Many people spend a lot of money on reading courses when you can achieve it yourself by following strictly the guidelines and tips for effective reading. The secret to it is practice every day and discipline. You have to have the persistence and the discipline to do it every day till you achieve the desired result that you want.

For others self-help to speed reading is just enough for them to develop their skills. For others who think they can’t do it on their own can always enroll on courses for speed reading. It is definitely an edge if you have that skill these days especially if you are involved in works where you have to comprehend and master volumes of information quickly. So if you have not developed that skill yet then better start now, besides it’s never too late to learn.

Reading to young children

Read, read to your children, how many times do you hear the importance of reading to your children starting at early age? Very often, the sooner you start the better are the chances your children will develop that love for books and literature.

Children need to have 1,000 stories read to them before they learn to read for themselves. Preschool children need 3 to 7 books read to them and at least they need to be exposed 3 to 5 new words each day. What other materials can you use to increase their vocabulary and spark their interest in reading and literature? You can use magazines, story books, catalogs, boxes, newspapers, sign and posters.

Your children are not enthusiastic about books? Make it fun! Create different environments to get the attention and interest of your children, involve them in getting the setting for the story. For instance, if you are reading a story about animals in the juggle, then find a spot in your backyard or a corner in your children's room for the setting, add stuff animals, pictures of animals and plants that you may find in magazines, move some of the fake plants you have in your house to the spot, or just make it cozy. Make fanny faces, use different tones of voice to imitate sounds and to make it more interesting. Before, during and after the reading ask children open-ended questions, these will increase their interest in the story, use their critical thinking and utilize and increase new vocabulary.

Reading is important for the development of the brain, socio-emotional skills, use and increase of new vocabulary words and the love for literature. When you read to children you are not only helping them to nurture the love for books, the desire to know, to explore and their literacy development but you are also providing your children with quality time.

Yulitza Aray