“A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people” John F. Kennedy
Last week the Legislative Post Audit Committee decided to pursue an audit of the Department of Corrections policies on security and Corrections Officer conduct with inmates.
The audit comes as a result to recent questions about three high profile cases involving inmate and correctional officer relationships. One case involved an inmate that was smuggled out of the Lansing Correctional facility by a person who had responsibility for handling dog training at the facility.
The second case involved the 2007 escape of two individuals from the El Dorado Correctional Facility who cut the wire and were driven out of state by a female corrections officer. In each of the aforementioned cases the inmates were captured and returned to custody.
The most recent incident included an alleged activity that had a male corrections officer supply contraband for a female inmate for sexual favors. Allegedly the liaison created a pregnancy that subsequently led to the female getting an abortion.
The audit committee has a limited scope that will address the existing policies of DOC and if they are adequate and being administered properly. This will be accomplished by reviewing the policies and procedures of our own correctional facilities as well as those of surrounding state DOC’s. The governor has requested a review by an outside organization as well.
Several different parties and groups describe the extent of abuse of the policies, as you might expect the DOC is actively investigating the extent of compliance. Secretary Werholz has promised a thorough evaluation, we will reserve comment until after the review is complete which should be sometime early January 2010.
Professor Art Hall, Ph.D. Executive Director Center for Applied Economics, KU School of Business presented a study on Technology Development in Kansas that was prepared for Kansas Inc.
The major themes found that Kansas has performed well in the growth of “high-tech” businesses. Following the recession of 1991, the rate of growth has exceeded that of the nation and the Plains states and that technology-based economic development is primarily an urban phenomenon.
Volume matters because innovation is a “numbers game” because it is an inherently risky enterprise that requires a lot of trial and error. Success is the goal but a failure is a key aspect of the overall discovery process.
Density matters because dense populations and dense commercial activity help support volume. But more importantly, they assist the innovation process by making it less costly to experiment. A key virtue of density related to innovation is the ease with which diverse groups of people can interact face-to-face. Such interactions breeds ideas and make it easier to communicate-and develop-hunches. (Water Cooler talk)
Kansas has a natural disadvantage in the areas of volume and density, except for Kansas City and secondarily Wichita. Dealing with this disadvantage is an appropriate focus of state policy.
We need to think much bigger. A new strategic vision can expand our potential. The overall thrust of Kansas policy may work against (rather than with) the key forces of volume and density.
Most of the growth has occurred around Kansas City- the counties of Douglas, Johnson, and Leavenworth. Johnson County accounts for about 50 percent of all “high-tech” businesses in Kansas (and about 30 percent of the employment). Wichita accounts for 17% of the businesses (and about 55% of the employment).
A partial list of the 2008 High Tech Bio-Science businesses, job count and ranking follows
#2 Medical Laboratories 119 with 11,475 jobs;
#11 Pharmaceutical Preparation Manufacturing 10 with 4,071 jobs;
#12 All other basic organic Chemical Manufacturing 9 businesses with 1,126 jobs;
#16, Research and Development in the physical, engineering and life sciences;
#21 Biological Product Manufacturing 10 businesses with 653 jobs;
#25 Ethyl Alcohol Manufacturing 15 businesses with 265 jobs.
You get the idea that we have many job opportunities in the bio-high-tech field in Kansas. In the other high tech fields Cellular and other wireless Telecommunications topped the list with 151 businesses and 13,172 jobs. The top 52 industries have 2750 businesses that support 131,235 jobs.
The dynamics of change make it imperative that our young people get a good base education and be prepared for the continuation of their education to stay up in pace with the advances in technology. The continuation education component would indicate our Technical Colleges, Community Colleges, Regents Universities all work to provide opportunities for this type of education.
Earlier, I published a request for ideas and comments on possible legislative topics and the responses are starting to come in. I will collate the responses and report them on my web site and in a future Legislative update, if you want your voice heard, send your response in today.
I consider it a high honor to be your representative in Topeka and want to know what you think.
Thanks, John
Back to Updates
