Post-incarceration employment options (Department of Corrections)

September 25, 2018
Beryl Lipton
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 61469
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516
requests@muckrock.com
Dear Ms. Lipton,
The Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC) received your e-mailed Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) request for the following:

* All policies related to the employment and payment of incarcerated persons under the jurisdiction of this agency.
* The most recent report regarding currently-employed incarcerated persons under the jurisdiction of this agency. Please include all available segregable information, including the type of employment, the wage at which the employment occurs, and any other applicable information. Please do not include any personally identifying information.
* All reports regarding post-incarceration employment for individuals formally under the jurisdiction of this agency.
In accordance with K.S.A. 45-218 (d), we have begun the process of determining if we possess any public records meeting the terms of your request and how best to proceed. Soon we will provide you with one or more of the following:

1. Copies of the requested public records.
2. A statement concerning our inability to locate any public records meeting the terms of your request.
3. A request for additional clarification concerning the types of records or information you are seeking.
4. Record requests that can be provided with less than one hour of staff time will not be billed for labor. If we determine that our office possesses the public records you request, but are voluminous, difficult to locate, and/or contain information that may include open and closed information, we will provide you with a written estimate of the fees that we will require be pre-paid in order to pay for the actual costs associated with (a) locating and/or retrieving the public records from storage, (b) staff time spent in assisting with making copies of the records, including staff time spent examining the records for possible closure and/or redaction, and (c) copying and mailing the requested public records. In addition to billing for labor that exceed one hour of staff time, the following rates shall apply:

* Copies, 25 cents per page after 100 pages

* Staff time will be charged at the rate of pay for each person whose time is used in order to assist and/or respond to a specific request. This may include the time spent to access records maintained on computer facilities, review records to determine whether closure exceptions apply and /or to redact open from closed information. For the purpose of transparency, our rates are as follows: general staff time will be charged at $20 per hour, and information technology (IT) services and Legal staff services will be charged at $38 per hour.
* Additional fees may be assessed if any other costs are incurred by KDOC in connection with complying with a record request. KDOC will provide an estimate of the fees which shall be paid prior to the department gathering the records. In order to ensure payment, the final cost of providing access to or furnishing copies must be paid before the records are provided. If the final cost is less than the estimate, the requestor will be reimbursed for the difference.

1. If we determine that we do possess the records, but that the records are subject to closure by law, we will provide you with that information with a written citation to the laws allowing or requiring that type of public record to be closed.
Unfortunately, your initial request was send to the KDOC’s record repository rather than to the KDOC’s KORA custodian. However, I am processing your request now and will respond as soon as possible. Thank you.
Sincerely,

Cheryl Cadue
Publications Editor
Kansas Department of Corrections
785-296-1928
Cheryl.Cadue@ks.gov
KDOC_Pub@ks.gov

September 27, 2018
Beryl Lipton
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 61469
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516
requests@muckrock.com
Dear Ms. Lipton,
I am writing in response to your Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) request to the Department of Corrections (KDOC) for the following:

1. All policies related to the employment and payment of incarcerated persons under the jurisdiction of this agency.
2. The most recent report regarding currently-employed incarcerated persons under the jurisdiction of this agency. Please include all available segregable information, including the type of employment, the wage at which the employment occurs, and any other applicable information. Please do not include any personally identifying information.
3. All reports regarding post-incarceration employment for individuals formally under the jurisdiction of this agency.
In response to the first part of your request, I have attached copies of the following:

* 04-103D Inmate Trust Fund
* 04-109A Earnings Disbursement for Offenders Engaged in Work Release Employment
* 10-101A Offender Programs and Services
* 10-109A Offender Work Assignment
* 11-101 Offender Privileges and Incentives
* 11-124 Job Performance Information for Offenders
* 15-101A WORK RELEASE AND PRISON/NON-PRISON BASED PRIVATE INDUSTRY PROGRAMS: Selection Criteria and Placement Procedures
* 10-128D PROGRAM AND SERVICES: Development and Implementation of Private Prison-Based and Private Non Prison-Based Industry Employment Programs (Please note: This IMPP is currently being updated with regard to the order in which wages are determined)
In response to part 2, the KDOC does not have an existing report that includes both the job name and the wage. To create such a report, KDOC staff estimate it would require eight hours of labor, billed at $38.00 per hour, to fulfill part 2 of your request. Therefore, you would be billed $304.00 for this information.

Should you wish for the KDOC to provide the information you requested for part 2 of your request, please provide a check or money order in the amount of $304.00 payable to the Kansas Department of Corrections. You may send the check or money order to my attention as follows:
Cheryl Cadue
Kansas Department of Corrections
714 SW Jackson St., Suite 300
Topeka, KS 66603
The KDOC will not begin work on this request until payment has been received.
In response to part 3 of your request, KDOC research staff state that the KDOC does not have consistent or reliable data on which to build a report. Therefore, this portion of your request cannot be fulfilled.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Thank you.
Sincerely,

Cheryl Cadue
Publications Editor
Kansas Department of Corrections
785-296-1928
Cheryl.Cadue@ks.gov
KDOC_Pub@ks.gov