The legislature and congress are back in session. 

Next will come a round of feel-good budget cut proposals which are almost always politically motivated and end up costing the taxpayers more money.

Of course, they must justify the cuts with smoke and mirrors. These “cuts” will affect successful, well-run operations everywhere, as well as anything involving the fewest number of voters, but cuts will never-ever reduce funding of the  bureaucrat’s bloated empire. 

Case in point. The Kansas Department of Corrections has closed the women’s conservation correctional camp in Oswego and announced the closing of the men’s camp in June.

The camps were established with the full support of judges to assist them in sentencing 18 years ago. The judges wanted a better way to handle non-violent youthful offenders.  Rather than prison, offenders could be sentenced to a six month stay at the conservation camp. 

Most of the crimes committed by the inmates were drug or dependency related.  The inmates had virtually no previous structure in their lives and came to the camp with low self esteem. The camp required physical training and this was something the inmates were not used to doing. The camp also required discipline, order, and respect. Skills were learned as well as GEDs earned. Onsite counseling added to the rebuilding of young lives.

Rather than being locked down in a cell with violent inmates who were on the merry-go-round cycle of repeating crimes, these inmates were placed in a barracks environment learning team work and accomplishment. But the KDOC never liked the idea of a correctional camp.  It didn’t fit their model of incarceration.  Remember, the only way to get in trouble as a bureaucrat is to make a decision or try something new.  So, even though the recidivism rate, was less than half the other Kansas institutions and the cost of housing the inmate was under two-thirds, the State shut down the program. I was a member of the camp operating board for quite a while and I heard a lot of four-bit words coming from the KDOC people describing two-bit ideas. 

Most people stereotype bankers as the conservative types who think that judges and correction people should throw away the key when it comes to incarceration.   Nothing could be further from the truth.  Granted, we are conservative.  We know the state cannot afford to pay for thousands of people being sent to jail each year and our society cannot afford to pay for social cost of criminals being set free because over crowding in prisons. 

Somehow the cycle must be broken and these camps provided an extremely effective alternative to crazy sentencing choices judges will now have. Instead of a camp like the ones we had, judges will either slap wrists and release the guilty, or lock them away behind bars.  The costs of either will far outweigh operating the camps and there are thousands of success stories as testament to the camp effectiveness. How else do these people ever become productive members of society? 

The inmates also learned from their community surroundings.  Most came from the urban areas and were sent to the rural camp.  They learned to become a team, sang in churches, marched in parades, repaired public works, interacted with the community members, and received counseling and training that changed their lives. Several times they were called upon to help with disaster recovery. 

I have personally taken groups of these men out on such projects.  When you are working hard, sweating alongside these guys you learn that somewhere along the way they just made bad choices and got in trouble.  They are bright and just like the regular kids in your neighborhood.  Direction and purpose were missing in their lives. 

Here's a photo from one such work project.  A dozen young men joined members of our volunteer fire department to work their butts off helping others.  I think it was the first time some had experienced loss on the other side of the fence and felt the heart warming feeling of helping others recover. I would challenge the brass at the corrections department to take a work detail from another state run facility armed with a handshake and a radio. 

I wish politics could be put aside and the correction camps be allowed to continue helping the misdirected young people rather than simply placing them back on the street or in a cell at the big house shared with Bubba. Then again what do I know, I’m just a country banker.

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Kansas Liberty columnist Bill Wyckoff is president of Labette Bank, a community bank with locations throughout southeast Kansas. He lives on a farm outside Altamont, Kan. A graduate of Kansas State University with an MBA from Southern Illinois University, he enjoys collecting antique John Deere tractors and driving his hemi orange Dodge Challenger. Email bwyckoff@labettebank.com

The Week in Review