Topeka ? During the 2000 legislative session, lawmakers approved a bill that has led to the release of thousands of criminals from prison and parole in communities across Kansas.

Two years and several horrendous crimes later, the issue is at the forefront of the Republican Party primary for state attorney general. And since Friday, it has been the subject of a televised campaign ad attacking Sen. David Adkins for his support of the bill.

Adkins and former state Rep. Phill Kline are the leading candidates for attorney general.

Adkins was one of the bill’s chief authors; Kline opposed it. The two are on the Aug. 6 ballot along with Charles McAtee, a Topeka lawyer.

On Monday, Gov. Bill Graves entered the fray, holding two news conferences to defend the bill he signed into law. He also defended his support for Adkins in the face of the advertisement that implied Adkins helped release violent criminals like one who stands accused in a mass slaying in Wichita.

Graves described the ad as “absolutely outrageous;” the group that paid for it “shadowy;” and he called on Kline to denounce it because the ad stated the defendant in the Wichita case “murdered” four people. Trial for the accused has not started, and Graves said such an ad could jeopardize the proceedings.

‘Bad choice’

Kline’s campaign said it had nothing to do with the ad or the group that paid for it, the Law Enforcement Alliance of America, based in Falls Church, Va.

Kline’s press secretary Whitney Watson, said the ad’s statement that the defendant “murdered” was a “bad choice.” But, Watson said, the part of the ad that links Adkins to the release of the defendant from parole supervision was legitimate.

The bill that reduced prison time and post-release supervision was called Senate Bill 323. It was a contentious piece of legislation passed in the final moments of the 2000 session.

At the start of that session, Kansas Corrections Secretary Charles Simmons was running out of space for inmates.

He had requested $17 million to build two new cell houses in El Dorado to house 512 more prisoners. But facing a tight budget, the Legislature was not in the mood for such a buildup.

Instead, lawmakers approved building a new cell house for 200 inmates at Ellsworth and establishing a system of reducing post-release supervision of certain offenders. The change was made in hopes of reducing the number of people on post-release supervision who were returned to prison for violations of their release.

Opposition

Supporters of the bill, such as Adkins, said it was a smart way to manage prisons and would reserve space for the most violent offenders. He has said the Kansas prison system was in danger of being taken over by the federal courts.

Opponents warned the measure would release people who had already committed violent acts and probably would do more.

Then-Majority Leader Kent Glasscock, R-Manhattan, and a key ally to Graves, explained his vote against the bill in the House Journal.

“I vote against this bill because it reduces the time of post-release supervision from 36 months to 24 months for criminals who are convicted of some dangerous crimes; this reduction can be further reduced 12 months for good behavior. The crimes that fall under this reduction include child abuse, aggravated sexual battery and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer,” Glasscock wrote.

The law applied to 8,520 offenders. Of that number, 6,100 were discharged from supervision, including 4,437 who were already in communities on post-release supervision, and 1,664 who were discharged from correctional facilities, according to Simmons.

Simmons declined to talk about the bill in terms of whether it was good or bad for the state.

“The bottom line was, the bill was a compromise,” he said. “It addressed the problems at the time.”

Addressing criticism that the law allowed violent criminals out of prison, Simmons said, “There is no 100 percent fail-safe solution when you are dealing with this type of behavior on the part of individuals. There is no assurance that some of those offenders (the lower risk offenders) are not going to commit crimes. That happens all the time a property crime offender will commit a higher classification crime.”

Response to ad

When the ad from the Law Enforcement Alliance of America began airing this weekend, Graves and Sedgwick County Dist. Atty. Nola Foulston urged that it be pulled from the air. Several stations have.

In a statement, Kline said: “I support the local prosecutor’s call to pull the first ad from the Wichita market. I cannot support anything that would interfere with the due process of law.”

But he denied any tie to the law enforcement group, which did not return a phone call from the Lawrence Journal-World. Graves said he believed the group is backed by the NRA.

Graves said the issues surrounding Senate Bill 323 were “far too complicated to boil down in a 30-second ad.”

But Kline disagreed. A vote for Senate Bill 323 was a bad one, he said.

“David Adkins will resort to anything to distract Kansas voters from the fact that David Adkins is soft on crime,” he said.