Douglas County Smart Justice Strategy Meeting

April 22, 2019 @ 7:00 pm
@ 8:30 pm
 
Earlier this year, the Campaign for Smart Justice focused on taking legislative efforts to change the criminal justice system. In fact, nearly 75 people gathered at the Kansas State Capitol to talk to state representatives and senators. Our work doesn’t stop there, and we’re committed to continuing our focus on prosecutorial accountability. Please join us for a county strategy meeting where we’ll be talking about the most powerful elected officials -- district attorneys. 
 
The criminal justice system in Kansas is broken. The crime rate in Kansas has consistently declined over the past four decades, but the prison population has quadrupled. Today, nearly 10,000 Kansans, many are nonviolent, low-level offenders struggling with mental health or substance use disorders, sit behind bars at an annual cost of $229 million.  
 
Our key priorities are to significantly reduce mass incarceration by 50% by 2025. We’ll do that by focusing on prosecutorial accountability, defelonizing certain drug offenses, reducing recidivism, and reforming civil asset forfeiture.