News & Commentary

The ACLU noted that the criminalization of marijuana is a racial justice issue - especially in Kansas. This has disproportionately impacted Black Kansans, who ranked 12th in the nation for the largest racial disparities in arrest rates for marijuana possession in 2018.

Sharon Brett, legal director of ACLU of Kansas, said state government opposition to legal distribution of medical cannabis interfered with personal health care choices of Kansans and conflicted with polling that demonstrated statewide popularity of medical marijuana reform.

Earlier this past summer, in the ACLU of Kansas’ report about the historical and social significance of the Quindaro settlement, we talked about the aspirational Kansas we fear too many residents here have forgotten.

Due to an excessively long waitlist, Kansas inmates who await mental health treatment and evaluations could spend more time in state-run facilities than in prison if convicted.

The Kansas Highway Patrol is appealing a federal injunction that will block its troopers from using the “two step” traffic stop tactic that a judge ruled had resulted in the agency violating the constitutional rights of motorists.

“In general, jails are not meant to be hospitals,” Sharon Brett said. “They are not meant to be places where individuals go to receive comprehensive medical and mental health care services. And we shouldn’t be relying on that as such. It is putting a Band-Aid over a bullet hole, essentially.”

The ACLU of Kansas believes the state could address these socially destabilizing and anti-democratic disparities by eliminating cash bail for non-violent offenses. Pretrial incarceration caused by unaffordable bail remains one of the greatest drivers of convictions.

“Because of the court’s ruling, hundreds of people on the waitlist for Larned will continue to languish for indeterminate months in our county jails, under conditions that exacerbate rather than treat mental illness,” said Sharon Brett, Legal Director of the ACLU of Kansas

In 2022, the ACLU of Kansas filed a lawsuit against the state over delays in mental health evaluations at Larned. People who face criminal charges have had to wait behind bars for as long as 13 months before getting a pretrial competency evaluation, according to the lawsuit.