Delinquency Services Summary
Decentralized State: Delinquency services are mostly organized at the local level, with the state providing support for a statewide network of community-based resources and graduated sanctions. Counties typically administer secure detention. The court services divisions of District Courts administer juvenile probation services, including predisposition investigation and probation. The state Juvenile Justice Authority administers commitment programs and contracts with local providers for community-based intake assessment, treatment, and aftercare services.

Court(s) with Delinquency Jurisdiction
District Courts exercise jurisdiction over delinquency proceedings. District Courts are general jurisdiction trial courts and typically place jurisdiction over delinquents in a juvenile division. For more information, visit the Kansas District Courts web page.

Highlights

Kansas Funds Comprehensive Strategy and Graduated Sanctions Programs
Kansas has implemented a system for providing structure to juvenile justice services statewide and infusing state resources while preserving local autonomy to tailor interventions for their youth. JJA works with county employees who are organized into distinct services areas—core programming, immediate intervention programs, graduated sanctions, and delinquency prevention programs.

Core programming for each judicial district includes Juvenile Intake and Assessment Services (JIAS), Juvenile Intensive Supervision Probation (JISP), and Community Case Management Agencies (CCMA). Immediate interventions provide community-based interventions for first-time, non-violent offenders who can be treated in the community without formal court intervention. Graduated sanctions programming is JJA’s effort to develop local consequences for on-going delinquency, ranging from the least restrictive (e.g., fines, restitution, and community service)—to moderately restrictive (e.g., house arrest and day reporting centers)—to out-of home placement in treatment centers or juvenile correctional facilities. Additional detail concerning Kansas’ three core juvenile justice programs is available on the JJA web site.

Delinquency Prevention
Statute requires the Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority (JJA) to develop a range of delinquency prevention programs. JJA assists communities in identifying research-based approaches to delinquency prevention and encourages them to develop partnerships for prevention at the local level. The Communities that Care® prevention strategy, which emphasizes developing an outcome-based approach to prevention, guides the community planning process. For more information, please visit JJA's "Partners in Juvenile Justice" web page. The Kansas Communities the Care web site provides additional data concerning delinquency prevention, including community level data for profiling youth risk and protective factors.

Detention
Counties fund secure detention facilities and either administer them directly or contract with private providers. Currently, 14 facilities exist in the state, with several serving regions of the state.

K.S.A. 38-2361 outlines secure detention criteria for preadjudication/disposition holding. Currently, no state mandate exists to guide detention decisions with a screening tool. Where structured decision-making exists for detention, it is developed and applied at the local level.

Detention facilities are also used to safely manage adjudicated delinquents who have received a JJA commitment and are awaiting placement in a juvenile correctional facility or other less restrictive community placement program. JJA reviews statewide detention utilization to expedite the movement of youth with JJA commitments from secure detention to a correctional or treatment placement.

Youth cannot be sentenced to detention in Kansas, but some jurisdictions have established Sanction Houses as a result of a 1997 law authorizing this function. K.S.A. 38-2361 authorizes courts to place youth in Sanction Houses for a 28-day period as a disposition. Thereafter, the court must review the placement every 7-days. The Sanction Houses can be located in existing detention facilities or separately.

Alternatives to secure detention are administered at the local level and range from electronic monitoring and house arrest programs to intensive day treatment and the Sanction House concept described above. However, the availability of detention alternatives varies across jurisdictions.

Delinquency Intake Screening
By statute, the County or District Attorney may file a complaint with the district court (K.S.A. 38-2328). To handle these complaints, the Juvenile Justice Authority (JJA) oversees and funds a statewide system of intake and assessment services for alleged juvenile offenders and children in need of care (K.S.A.75-7023). Each of the state's 31 judicial districts (covering 105 counties) has Juvenile Intake and Assessment Centers (JIACs). JIACs operate 7 days a week, 24 hours a day to assist law enforcement with youth taken into custody and to coordinate information-gathering and assessment services. JIAC staff administers a standard juvenile intake and assessment questionnaire and the Problem Oriented Screening Instrument for Teenagers (POSIT) and provides crisis intervention services. The JIACs also may choose to administer the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument - second version (MAYSI-2).

The Juvenile Justice Authority provides general policy oversight and establishes operating standards for the JIACs and provides grant opportunities for program development. However, the range of assessment and crisis intervention services, authority, policy, and procedures varies among districts. County governments have the administrative authority for monitoring daily operations or outside service contracts. Ultimately, court services staff and local prosecutors screen referrals for legal sufficiency and make decisions regarding charging the offense in all cases prior to filing a petition. As a result, intake arrangements vary across the state depending on local arrangements for JIACs and drafting delinquency complaints.

Additional detail concerning juvenile intake and assessment in Kansas is available on the JJA web site.

Diversion
Diversion is labeled "immediate intervention" in Kansas. Local prosecutors or the district court have the authority for developing detailed decision-making guidelines, developing immediate intervention program options with directors of juvenile intake and assessment centers, and restricting eligibility for these programs to certain types of offenders (please see K.S.A. 38-1635 for additional detail).

Immediate interventions operated at the local level in Kansas frequently include truancy programs and youth court.

Predisposition Investigation
Court Services Officers (CSOs), working in the Court Services Divisions of District Courts, are responsible for predisposition investigation reports, building upon the information gathered by juvenile intake and assessment centers. Local CSOs may differ in their protocols for preparing social histories and making disposition recommendations. K.S.A. 38-2360 outlines the various reports and information that a court may order to be included in a predisposition report.

Victim Rights and Services
The Kansas Victim Bill of Rights (K.S.A. 74-7333) does not specifically extend rights to victims of juvenile violence beyond the right to receive information concerning juvenile proceedings or hearings and the right to be present at a hearing where probation or parole is considered (K.S.A. 74-7335). However, the Kansas Juvenile Justice Code establishes certain additional rights for juvenile crime victims, including restricting information identifying the victim in juvenile files open to public inspection (K.S.A. 38-2309), opening all hearings to the victim and the victim’s family (K.S.A. 38-2353), exempting victims from requirements to attend court-directed mediation (K.S.A. 38-2361), providing authority for the victim to file a report to a court when a youth has violated a probation condition or rules of a court placement which did not result in a new complaint (K.S.A. 38-2368), and requiring district attorneys to notify victims of juvenile offenders concerning the release of a juvenile offender from a JJA correctional facility (K.S.A. 38-2374;2376), restricting youth who commit sexually violent offenses from attending the same school as the victim (K.S.A. 38-2361) and right to a youth's HIV or hepatits B infection status when the offense involves a sexual act or the transmission of body fluids (K.S.A. 38-2317). For additional information on victim services within the Kansas juvenile justice system, visit http://jja.state.ks.us.

The Kansas Attorney General provides information to victims through its Crime Victims' Rights Office. The Office provides direct assistance to victims and their families, administers grants for local victim advocacy, and maintains a statewide directory of advocacy agencies.

The Kansas Crime Victims Compensation Board, within the Kansas Attorney General's Office, operates the state's Crime Victim Compensation Program. The Program provides financial assistance to help victims pay expenses related to victimization, such as uninsured medical and dental costs and lost income.

Probation Supervision
Court Services Officers (CSOs), working in Court Services Divisions of District Courts, provide probation supervision services for delinquents and may help monitor court-ordered services for adults in a range of case types, including adult probation, children in need of care (protection), and informal supervision of adult and juvenile offenders. CSOs may also deliver divorce mediation and custody investigation services. In this regard, CSOs are somewhat unique in the field of juvenile probation in that they may provide services to a wide range of juvenile and adult family case types, especially in more rural areas.

District Court judges may assign juveniles to Juvenile Intensive Supervision Probation (JISP), which is administered by the Juvenile Justice Authority. More information about JISP is available under the Community Corrections section of this profile.

The Supreme Court, Office of Judicial Administration establishes statewide juvenile probation policy and sets standards for training, including requirements for qualifications, training, and certification. However, the operation, budget, and administration of juvenile probation are the responsibilities of local District Courts, with core funding provided at the county level.

Juvenile Probation Officer Qualifications, Certification, and Training
To qualify for employment, Court Services Officers must have graduated from an accredited four-year college or university and pursued major course work in corrections, counseling, criminology, psychology, social work, sociology, or closely related fields. In lieu of this requirement, the state court will accept completion of 60 semester hours from an accredited 4-year college, university, or junior college with 2 years of experience in court services work. For additional detail about the responsibilities and requirements for Court Services Officers, visit the Kansas Court Services Officer home page.

Each judicial district’s local Juvenile Intensive Supervision Probation program determines employment qualifications and training, working within policies and procedures established by the JJA. Employment qualifications usually require a bachelor’s degree and/or commensurate work experience. No ongoing training standards currently exist.

The Supreme Court, Office of Judicial Administration establishes statewide juvenile probation policy and sets standards for training, including requirements for qualifications, training, and certification.

Juvenile Corrections Continuum
The Juvenile Justice Authority (JJA) provides funding and policy oversight for treatment programs for youth committed to JJA or placed on community corrections supervision (alternative to secure placement). JJA administers four juvenile correctional facilities, ranging from minimum security to a maximum-security unit.

Community Corrections
The underlying philosophy of JJA community corrections is to build intervention options at the local level for a system of "graduated sanctions," including specialized probation and community-based treatment interventions. Among the core requirements of this effort are intensive supervision programs and case management services for maintaining youth in the community. As a result, the options for specialized supervision services vary by district, but within the rubric provided by JJA for development grants. For additional detail, please visit JJA's Partners in Juvenile Justice web page.

Juvenile Intensive Supervision Probation (JISP) is a highly structured/supervised community-based program that works with juvenile offenders who have previously failed in traditional court service probation, or have committed a serious offense but do not yet need an out-of-home or juvenile correctional facility placement. The JISP philosophy is that selected offenders can be effectively managed in the community without presenting an increased risk to the public through the cost-effective use of community-based supervision and control interventions. JISP case managers, funded by the Juvenile Justice Authority (JJA), carry caseloads averaging 25 youth and are often responsible for youth in a large geographic area.

In addition to JISP, a core JJA function is to fund and develop a network of county Community Case Management Agencies (CCMA). Community case managers develop individual case plans for offenders under supervision, including: offenders ordered by the court into the JJA Commissioner's custody but not directly committed to a juvenile correctional facility (JCF); offenders committed to a JCF; and offenders on conditional release from a JCF. Services can include supervision, community service, electronic monitoring, employment services, evaluation, and restitution monitoring.

After a thorough assessment of the offender’s needs, a case plan is developed in cooperation with the youth, the youth’s family, and other significant parties in the community. Unlike youth on JISP, those managed through CCMA may be placed out of the home and/or receive other treatment services to assist them in dealing with substance abuse, mental health, behavior management, or other challenges.

While significant local autonomy exists for the administration of community supervision, the JJA vision statement clearly reflects elements of the Balanced and Restorative Justice approach to delinquency intervention. Additionally, the Kansas Advisory Group provides grant funding for programs that reflect BARJ principles. For more information on the JJA vision statement, visit the JJA web site and select the “About” section. For additional detail concerning BARJ program initiatives and a comprehensive continuum of community-based services, visit the JJA's Partners in Juvenile Justice web page.

Project S.T.A.R.

The Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority was awarded an OJJDP FY2007 High-Risk Youth Offender Re-Entry grant on September 1, 2007. Project S.T.A.R. was developed to create a seamless evidence-based system throughout the entire length of supervision for the juvenile by addressing common shortcomings within the current system. To address these problems, the current grant proposes to implement evidence-based programming and effective reentry techniques modeled after the Intensive Aftercare Program by using a graduated level of transition from the Juvenile Correctional Facility to the community.

The design for Project S.T.A.R. requires lower case loads, reintegration planning beginning upon entrance into the juvenile correctional facility, and evidence-based practices throughout a seamless system using a step-down approach from the correctional facility to the community. Specifically, Project S.T.A.R. will improve the services within the correctional facilities by implementing evidence-based practices. The reintegration planning will be developed upon entrance into the juvenile correctional facility using a team approach with input from all parties.

To assist in the smooth transition back into the community, Project S.T.A.R. will develop a Community Reintegration Facility which will provide services to the juvenile for a period up to 90 days. The purpose of this facility will allow the juveniles opportunities to transition from a highly structured Juvenile Correctional Facility back into the community. The Community Reentry Facility will also provide opportunities to promote reunification through fostering healthy family units, prosocial employment and leisure activities, and prosocial peer networks.

Commitment to State
District Court judges commit youth to the custody of the Juvenile Justice Authority (JJA) Commissioner for a determinate period in a juvenile correctional facility as prescribed in the Kansas sentencing matrix, K.S.A. 38-2369. District Court judges may only depart from the matrix within limits imposed by statute. Departure from presumptive sentences requires a hearing and finding of fact by the committing court.

For youth placed in JJA custody, but not directly placed in a juvenile correctional facility by a court, the JJA Commissioner has authority for deciding placement specifics and is required to notify the court in writing once the placement is made. While the court may make placement recommendations, the statutes provide no authority for directing placement in a specific facility (K.S.A. 38-2365). Any youth placed out of the home is subject to "permanency planning" requirements and court reviews every 12 months after placement. Regarding JJA placements, the agency is responsible for developing progress reports for presentation at the permanency review hearings. Kansas statute sets forth a framework for the progress report in K.S.A. 38-2365.

Each youth committed by a judge to the custody of the Commissioner of the JJA is assigned to a Community Case Management Agency (CCMA) caseworker, regardless of whether that youth is placed in community-based programming or in a juvenile correctional facility. The caseworkers maintain contact with the youth they supervise, as well as the facility/program staff, the youth’s families, and others who can help with release planning and successful reintegration of the youth back into their communities. In addition to supervising youth while in placement, the caseworkers also supervise the youth while they are in aftercare, or conditional release.

Blended Sentencing
Kansas allows certain offenders to be prosecuted under provisions that give the District Court the ability to blend juvenile and adult sentences. A juvenile who is the subject of an extended jurisdiction juvenile (EJJ) prosecution has the right to trial by jury and all of the rights extended to a defendant in adult criminal proceedings.

When an EJJ prosecution results in a guilty plea, the juvenile court can impose a juvenile disposition and an adult sentence, which is stayed on the condition that the juvenile offender does not violate the provisions of the juvenile disposition and does not commit a new offense (K.S.A. 38-2347). Commitments under this act are to the Department of Corrections as opposed to the JJA, with arrangements for managing placements and physical custody in juvenile facilities outlined in the code (K.S.A. 38-2366). For more information, click here.

Direct Placement
District courts have a range of sentencing alternatives outlined in K.S.A 38-1663, including the option to place a youth directly in the custody of a youth residential facility. The same rules apply for permanency reviews by the court and adherence to determinate sentence guidelines in the Kansas juvenile sentencing matrix.

Release
When the court recommends an out of home placement in the commitment order to the Juvenile Justice Authority (JJA), the youth may not be returned to the community without first notifying the court. Any modifications of a JJA commitment based upon program completion or positive behavior must be submitted to the court for approval. Where the court disapproves the motion, the youth's attorney may request a formal hearing on the matter. JJA petitions the District Court to release youth from legal custody.

Aftercare/Re-entry
Aftercare is called conditional release in Kansas. Conditional release is administered at the local level through the Juvenile Justice Authority's (JJA) Community Case Management network. The Community Case Management network is funded through JJA grants to local service providers that also provide community-based alternatives to juvenile corrections. The administration of aftercare varies depending on the program resources at the community level.

Community corrections case managers develop individual case plans for youth returning from placement in JJA facilities and may be involved in preparing youth for community reentry, prior to release. The plans use the resources of the community corrections programs that are developed and carried out at the local level by community case managers.

In addition to the Community Case Management system, Court Services Officers may also serve youth returning from placement.

Kansas is participating in the Office of Justice Program's Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative. For information about Kansas' involvement, click here. By visiting the State Activities & Resources page, users can read about how other states are using their grants. Descriptions of programs for juveniles follow the descriptions of programs for adults, where applicable.

State Laws

Legal Resources

The Kansas Juvenile Justice Code is contained in Chapters, 38, 75 and 76 of the Kansas Revised Statutes. The Kansas Legislature also provides access to statutes with number or key word searches.

Rules of court handed down by the Kansas Supreme Court for District Courts: Visit the Kansas Judicial System 's Rules Adopted by the Supreme Court of the State of Kansas web page.

Kansas Bar Association (links to local district court rules)

Purpose Clauses
To read Kansas' purpose clauses for delinquency proceedings and juvenile corrections, click here.

Delinquency Jurisdiction (as of the end of the 2005 legislative session)
Lower Age: 10
Upper Age: 17

Extended Age of Delinquency Jurisdiction
The maximum duration of institutional commitments (including conditional release periods) is until the youth reaches age 23 for certain sentencing matrix classifications. While commitments expire when a youth attains the age of 22.5 in these highest commitment levels, the District Court may retain jurisdiction of the case until the offender turns age 23. The preceding provisions are notwithstanding commitments under the state's "extended jurisdiction juvenile prosecution" blended sentencing option.

Juvenile Transfer Laws
For information on Kansas' juvenile transfer laws, click here.

Juvenile Justice Leadership

Kansas Advisory Group on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
The Governor established the Kansas Advisory Group on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act to guide the expenditure of State and federal funds for juvenile justice.

Kansas Legislature's Joint Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice Oversight
The Kansas Legislature's Joint Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice Oversight approves the OJA budget and provides some policy guidance for the Juvenile Justice Authority.

Resources/Contacts
Juvenile Justice Authority
Kansas Advisory Group on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Kansas Attorney General
Kansas Attorney General's Crime Victims' Rights Office
Kansas Communities the Care
Kansas District Courts
Kansas Legislature's Joint Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice Oversight

Bill Miskell
Public Information Officer
Juvenile Justice Authority
714 SW Jackson, Suite 300
Topeka, KS 66603
Phone: (785) 296-4213
Fax: (785) 296-1412

The National Center for Juvenile Justice strives to make each State Profile as accurate as possible. Please bring any errors, updates, or additions to the attention of the State Profiles project manager. Persons listed as state contacts are not responsible for information contained in these profiles.

© 2000 (original copyright); © 2006 (most recent copyright) National Center for Juvenile Justice

Citation: National Center for Juvenile Justice. 2006. "Kansas." State Juvenile Justice Profiles. Pittsburgh, PA: NCJJ. Online. Available: http://www.ncjj.org/stateprofiles/.