Topeka — A policy of examining deaths of inmates in state and local custody is getting credit for helping to keep jails and prisons safe for both the prisoners and the officers supervising them.
One state official said because of the 13-month-old law, inmate suicides are a more visible issue, which could change how some officers are trained. Others contend jails and prisons are now more accountable.
"The initiative seems to be working," said Sonny Scroggins, a Topeka human rights activist who pushed for the policy. "We need checks and balances and we can't have accountability without a mechanism like this."
The law enacted at Scroggins' urging took effect July 1, 2004, and last year the Kansas Bureau of Investigation reviewed 42 deaths in custody. Most, or 29, were from natural causes, but 10 were suicides, while two resulted from accidents, and one, from a hunger strike.
Change didn't come without a hitch, though. This year, legislators modified the law to make sure the KBI focuses on deaths involving suspicious circumstances or suicide, rather than natural causes.
"When we don't do our job, bad things are going to happen," said Coffey County Sheriff Randy Rogers. "The KBI can use it as a tool to make sure we're dotting I's and crossing T's."
Before the 2004 law, the KBI typically investigated between five and 10 inmate deaths a year, most of the ones involving suspicious circumstances, said Kyle Smith, the bureau's deputy director.
But Scroggins was concerned that deaths weren't being fully reviewed by officials or information about them, disclosed to the public. Legislators enacted the law, requiring the KBI to investigate all deaths of inmates in city, county or state custody.
But in the month after the law took effect, the bureau was swamped with investigations, including two suicides in one week at the Sedgwick County jail. KBI officials asked legislators to modify the law this year.
They did, deciding the KBI didn't have to investigate if an autopsy, preliminary autopsy report or death certificate determined a death was from natural causes, or if the inmate had received regular care from a licensed physician.
Smith said investigating deaths from natural causes strained the KBI, citing a case in which the family of a terminally ill prisoner decided to end life support.
However, Rogers said because thousands of inmates are in state or local custody and because of ongoing problems with abuse of methamphetamines and other drugs, he would have expected a higher death rate.
"Ten deaths doesn't alarm me," said Rogers, who hasn't had a death of someone in his county's custody in nine years as sheriff.
Rogers, president of the Kansas Sheriffs' Assn., said the investigations will give law enforcement agencies data they can share among themselves or in training.
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