Kansas House Gives First-Round OK to Prisons Budget

The Kansas House has given first-round approval to a budget bill that would spend more than $390 million for prisons in the next fiscal year.

The bill includes more than $360 million from general revenue and restores funding that was vetoed last year by Gov. Sam Brownback.

Lawmakers amended the bill Wednesday to place restrictions on where the Department of Corrections could locate parole offices.

The restrictions were prompted by the agency’s plan to open a parole office next door to a daycare center in Kansas City, Kan. Parents and city officials have protested, saying they don’t want convicted sex offenders visiting an office so close to children.

The state Senate is working on its own version of a prisons budget.