News & Commentary

TOPEKA — The Kansas Attorney General’s Office has agreed to pay the American Civil Liberties Union and other attorneys $1.9 million in fees and expenses for a five-year legal battle over an unconstitutional restriction on voter registrations.

The ACLU and federal public defenders are warning a private prison company may be trying to avoid President Biden's executive order that bans new contracts with most for-profit detention facilities.

The Kansas Reflector welcomes opinion pieces from writers who share our goal of widening the conversation about how public policies affect the day-to-day lives of people throughout our state. Sharon Brett is legal director at the ACLU of Kansas.

BELLE PLAINE, Kan. — A privately run maximum security federal prison in Kansas is dangerous and should be shut down when its contract expires at the end of this year, civil rights advocates and federal public defenders urged the White House in a letter.

The violence and neglect suffered by inmates at a pre-trial detention facility in Leavenworth has become so severe the facility should be shut down, a group of civil rights leaders and public defenders wrote in a letter to officials in Kansas and Washington, D.C.

Aileen Berquist, community engagement manager at the nonpartisan ACLU of Kansas, said legislators should avoid deliberately disenfranchising minorities and communities of color through gerrymandering by treating incarcerated people as if they lived outside a prison’s barbed fencing on Main Street.

TOPEKA — Kristi Gadino didn’t appear to be bothered by the “shockingly profane” language used by middle school students on her bus.

Wichita police wield the power to label anyone they deem suspicious as a gang member or associate. The Master Gang List, their confidential database, tracks the names of about 3,000 Wichita residents — even if they haven’t committed a crime. 

“Protesting is a bedrock of our constitutional democracy,” said Sharon Brett, Legal Director of the ACLU. “It’s the ability to have your voice heard and to make sure that government is working for you. Protesting has a deep, rich history."