Topeka ? A human rights advocate is asking legislators to consider creating an independent board to review the deaths of inmates in state or local custody.

Sonny Scroggins, of Topeka, is pushing for the board as part of a state and national campaign to make state and local officials more accountable when deaths occur in prisons and jails.

As the Legislature’s wrap-up session continued Monday, Scroggins worked to get the idea on lawmakers’ list of issues to be studied this fall and considered in 2004.

“It speaks to our morality and humanity,” he said.

A review conducted separately from the work of a coroner or prosecutor would assure a family that an inmate did not die due to negligence or at the hands of corrections employees, he said.

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline has met with Scroggins to discuss the initiative and is willing to look at alternatives to the system.

“There could be procedural suggestions that could be beneficial,” he said Monday.

Sen. Derek Schmidt, R-Independence, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he was interested in creating an independent board, similar to a state board that reviews children’s deaths.

“The fox should not be in charge of safeguarding the chickens,” Schmidt said. “It is important not only for the safety of inmates, but those in the corrections business.”

Kelvin Alexander, field representative for the National Action Network, an advocacy group founded by the Rev. Al Sharpton, said Scroggins’ initiative was gaining attention nationwide, including in several Southern states. Scroggins has been advising local human rights advocates on framing similar initiatives elsewhere.

“We’re in 92 cities, and every time we talk, the subject comes up,” said Alexander, a retired New York City police sergeant of 20 years.

“Too many people are dying in custody,” he said. “We believe this initiative is going to be trail-blazing legislation.”

Scroggins said the need in Kansas was highlighted by a recent verdict in a case resulting from the 1999 suicide of a 23-year-old McCune man in the Shawnee County jail.

A federal court jury last month awarded $10 million to the parents of Scotty Sisk. The jury found that there had been negligence, but not deliberate indifference, in the handling of Sisk after his mother told jail employees he was a suicide risk.

Sisk killed himself a few days into a one-year sentence for violating an order to keep him from contacting a former girlfriend.

His death was among at least seven that have occurred in prisons and jails in Kansas since 1999, Scroggins said.

He said he hoped Kansas would be a leader on inmate treatment.

“It’s a human rights issue,” he said.