Kansas’ top law enforcement officially advocates higher spending on for the mentally ill and treating substance abuse. Attorney General Derek Schmidt says the extra funding is crucial to reforming the state’s criminal justice system. Schmidt contends extra funding for such services will deal with underlying problems fueling many offenders crimes. He said local officials frequently face a bad choice of locking up someone who’d benefit more from treatment or leaving that person in the community to cause more harm. There’s interest in changing the criminal justice system because state prisons are full and the inmate population is expected to keep growing.
