Sentencing guidelines a hot topic at the Statehouse
8:24 p.m. Saturday, August 25, 2007
"I'm so tired of hearing how we're going to fix them. They should be put away."
Activist and family violence victim herself, Claudine Dombrowski, joined members of the community as they discussed, along with representative Joe Patton, possible changes in sentencing guidelines in Kansas.
Displaying a picture of her 13-year-old daughter, who witnessed the abuse upon her mother for years, Claudine uses it as a reminder of why she continues to fight for tougher sentences for criminals.
She recalls being abused countless times.
"When he did have contact with me, it was with a crowbar, causing 42 stitches internally and externally," Dombrowski said. "Not only did he not go to jail for that, they gave him early release."
This weekend allowed for the community to come together and talk about suggestions about sentencing guidelines and judges' discretion.
"Do we want to limit judges discretion and if so which crimes and how much," Rep. Joe patton said. "The other thing is, under our system now, we have two choices: we can put a person in prison or we can put them on probation and let them walk the streets."
Representative Patton has been taking suggestions from all areas of the community and has a few himself.
Patton envisions what he calls "probation camp", perhaps a solution that would fall somewhere between probation and prison.
It's a beginning stage, one that people like Claudine Dombrowski takes personally and hopes to take all the way.
"I'm here because I want to make a difference for my daughter's generation and her daughter's generation."
With bills being drafted by fall and introduced by January, Patton says we should see some changes in the 2008 session.
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