Reno County commissioners to weigh updated rules for supervising juvenile offenders

Reno County commissioners are set Wednesday, Oct. 28, to consider updated rules for supervising juvenile offenders, from monthly check-ins to court permanency hearings, that staff say must change to match revised state standards on out-of-home placements.

Community Corrections Director Randy Regehr is presenting the eight policy updates, which sit on the consent agenda, a group of items commissioners can approve with a single motion. Agenda memos tie the changes to Kansas Department of Corrections standards, list the options as approval or approval with additional changes, and recommend approval. Only the risk-assessment memo addresses cost, and it lists no fiscal impact.

The policies before the commission set supervision levels by a youth's score on a state risk assessment. Youth with the highest scores get four face-to-face contacts a month and at least 175 program hours over their supervision term, while those with the lowest get one contact a month and 10 hours. Every level includes monthly home and parent contacts, and a judge may extend supervision if program hours go unfinished.

Youth leaving a placement for a parent's home or for independent living start on the second-highest level for 30 days. Youth in 24-hour residential programs are placed on an administrative level with at least one face-to-face contact a month.

Two employees must be in a vehicle transporting a youth, or one employee of the same sex as the youth if a camera records the trip. Drivers may not be on the Kansas child or adult abuse registries.

Permanency hearings are court reviews of a youth's long-term living goal, such as reintegration, adoption or guardianship. They must be held within 12 months of a youth's removal from home and at least yearly afterward. Youth on conditional release must get one within seven days of leaving a juvenile correctional facility.

Under the courtesy supervision policy, supervision by another county's agency is not an option for youth in a residential placement, a juvenile correctional facility or, for crossover youth, a Department of Children and Families residential placement.

The independent living policy requires a plan preparing certain juveniles 14 and older for adulthood within 30 days of court-ordered supervision, reviewed every 180 days.

Three more Community Corrections policy updates are on the consent agenda. One is a criminal justice information security policy that adds a visitor-log requirement to comply with a Kansas Bureau of Investigation audit; the memo says staff already use the logs. The others are a safety policy covering the transport of adults on probation and case-record rules for the switch to electronic files.

The meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the Reno County Courthouse Veterans Room, 206 W. 1st Ave., Hutchinson. Public comment on items not on the agenda is limited to five minutes per item. Residents can request disability-related accommodations in advance from the Reno County Counselor's Office at (620) 694-2926.

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