In his 23 years with the Wichita Police Department, Don Goseland helped put a lot of criminals behind bars. He is not soft on crime.

In fact, when his brother went to prison on a third-time drug conviction in 1992, Goseland didn’t blink.

“My brother was addicted to cocaine,” he said. “I thought incarceration would be of some benefit to him.”

Now, Goseland is asking legislators to reduce his brother’s sentence to the 12 years he’s already served.

“Keeping him in prison isn’t doing anybody any good,” Goseland said. “He’s changed. He’s turned himself around. So now, looking back on it, his sentence was extremely excessive.”

Goseland’s brother, Paul, is one of three Kansas inmates serving life sentences under the state’s old three-strikes-and-you’re-out drug laws. He is not eligible for parole until 2009.

Three years vs. life sentence

Lawmakers replaced the three-strikes laws with new sentencing guidelines in 1992. Last year, the guidelines were altered so that after Nov. 1, 2003, most drug offenders have been sent to treatment programs rather than prison.

The change was not retroactive, so it did not affect Paul Goseland’s sentence.

Mushrooms v. murder: Sentences in Kansas don’t all fit the crime (11-30-03) Plea agreement reached in slaying case (10-25-03) Inmates fall between sentencing standards (8-19-03) Treatment or punishment? (3-10-03)Reviewing the Implementing of the Kansas Sentencing Guidelines Act¢ACLU Three Strikes Reform¢Three Strikes and You’re Out¢PBS: Three Strikes (national timeline) Kansas Sentencing Commission

If convicted today of the same crimes — possession of small amounts of cocaine — Paul Goseland probably would be sent to a treatment program. On his third offense, he could be sentenced to up to 18 months in prison. That’s a far cry from the life sentence he is serving.

“I’m not making excuses for my brother, but, really, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to keep him in there,” Goseland said. “I can honestly say that if he’d been sent to treatment the first or second time, there wouldn’t have been a third time.”

Goseland, now a private investigator, admitted he’s not making much headway with Kansas legislators.

“Not many of them want to hear about it,” he said.

Last year’s debate

So far, lawmakers have steered clear of revisiting last year’s debate about making the new sentencing reform package retroactive.

“There was quite a debate on this last year,” said Sen. John Vratil, a Leawood Republican and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “But this year, it’s an issue that seems to have gotten lost. I’m not sure why.”

Vratil, also a member of the state sentencing commission, said that because the state’s prisons were “bumping up against” their capacities, Kansas sends some of its inmates to private prisons in Texas.

Currently, Kansas has 96 medium-security inmates in Texas.

“Clearly, retroactivity would have a positive impact on our bed space,” Vratil said. “It needs to be looked at.”

Retroactivity would affect almost 900 Kansas inmates now in prison on first-, second- or third-time possession charges.

In the Kansas House, Rep. Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, said he’s not detected much interest in taking on retroactivity.

‘Out of whack’

“What I’m hearing from my colleagues is that, yes, some of the old drug sentences are out of whack and they’d like the sentencing commission to take a look at them,” Davis said. “But when it comes to retroactivity, the sentiment is to wait a couple years to see how the move toward treatment works.”

Since the new guidelines took effect Nov. 1, sentencing commission records show that 199 drug offenders have been sent to treatment rather than prison.

“We expect those numbers to increase significantly as issues in some of the larger metropolitan counties get worked out,” said Patricia Biggs, executive director of the Kansas Sentencing Commission.

Biggs said it was too early to know how many drug offenders would be kept out of prison.

“We’re just getting started,” she said.