Topeka ? A tree on the Wyandotte County Jail grounds is named for Michael Phillips in hopes it eventually provides more than shade or attractive landscaping.

In November, Phillips, 40, died at the jail, where he’d been in custody since June. An autopsy said Phillips had a brain abscess. His was the third death at the jail since 1991.

Sonny Scroggins, a Topeka civil rights activist, named the tree for Phillips in a ceremony this month. But Scroggins wants more than memorials. He wants Kansas to mandate an independent investigation into all deaths of those in custody.

“It’s not going to hurt to put something in place. I think it’s fair and reasonable,” Scroggins said.

In recent months, Scroggins has traveled in Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma to heighten awareness of inmate deaths as a field officer for the National Action Network. Scroggins, 52, an activist for three decades, founded his own group, Bias Busters, before joining the network.

Kansas collects no solid figures on how many inmates die in county jails, though the federal government is supposed to release figures on custody deaths early next year.

Alesia Jackson, president of Bias Busters of Nebraska and chairwoman of the National Action Network chapter in Omaha, said her state had acted in recent years to investigate the deaths of people in custody or pursued by police. A state law requires that a grand jury convene to determine whether wrongdoing occurred.

“I believe that every state should have it,” Jackson said. “It should be federally mandated.”

Kansas Atty. Gen. Phill Kline has met with Scroggins and expressed interest. Having the review would help maintain the public’s faith in law enforcement, he said. Scroggins said he also had spoken with several legislators who were considering introducing his proposal during the 2004 legislative session.

But not everyone is convinced that jail deaths compel a state inspection program. Nicole Corcoran, spokeswoman for Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, said most Kansas jails were run conscientiously and there wasn’t evidence of a crisis.

Brad Ratliff, a spokesman for the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office, said all deaths were investigated internally to make sure deputies followed proper procedures. The jail has a capacity of 352 people and books close to 12,000 people each year.

“Jails only come to the forefront when something goes on,” Ratliff said. “Taxpayers want more police officers on the street and investigators, but nobody wants to utilize funds to deal with them once they’re locked up.”

Ratliff said jail employees worked under a great deal of stress, often working in conditions that exceed the meager pay counties can offer. As a result, jails frequently are dealing with a high turnover.

“There’s a lot of operational costs that go into it,” Ratliff said. “You want to meet the needs of the inmates, but with budget cuts, it makes it really difficult.”

Legislators review prison issues every session, but the most sweeping changes in the past quarter-century started with prisoners.

A petition filed in 1977 by convicted murder Jouett Edgar Arney led the state to sign a 1980 consent decree promising to improve prison conditions.

However, seven years later, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a scathing report on conditions at the state prison in Lansing, and a federal judge intervened. Eventually, the judge ordered nearly 800 inmates released and set capacity limits for each state prison. Federal court monitoring of the prison system continued until 1996.

However, since the 1990s, Kansas has not had a formal inspection program for jails, said Bill Miskell, spokesman for the Department of Corrections. The cost and the state’s lack of enforcement powers led the agency to stop them.

“We were conducting courtesy inspections, and whether it was a benefit, we had no way of knowing,” Miskell said. “It was a cost-cutting measure, no question.”

The state even stopped seeking accreditation of its prisons from the American Correctional Assn. because of a lack of money. Miskell said the Department of Corrections still documented its procedures and operations.

“In order to operate a correctional facility, we do not have to be accredited,” he said. “But certainly, accreditation provides you with a process from outside experts to measure a set of nationally recognized standards.”

Capt. Tim Phelps, a spokesman for the Shawnee County Correctional Facility, said the jail was seeking American Correctional Assn. accreditation and would be audited by the National Commission of Correctional Health Care in January.

Phelps said the process was voluntary but a priority for director Elizabeth Gillespie, who wants the jail’s policies and training to closely follow ACA standards.

Mental health issues are making an evaluation of the jail more important, Phelps said, which translates into additional training and demands on corrections staff. For example, during the holidays, staff are reminded that inmates are more likely to be depressed.

“They are expected to identify on the fly when mental issues are about to create a disaster,” Phelps said. “They always feel they don’t know enough about mental health, even though they are trained.”

The jail has had one suicide each year since 1999. As a result, the jail has developed an extensive inmate evaluation program that’s in place from booking through release. Phelps said training began when officers attended their first orientations and continued through professional development.

Meanwhile, Scroggins said he wanted reforms to come from a sense of obligation, not from legal pressure.

“We’ve talked long enough,” he said. “We need action.”