Sen. Dwayne Umbarger will meet Thursday afternoon with community leaders in Oswego and surrounding towns and counties, Phil Blair said today.
Blair is chairman of the Oswego Economic Development Committee which is spearheading a lobbying effort to keep the Labette County Women’s Correctional Conservation Camp open. The Kansas Sec. of Corrections, Roger Werholtz, announced on Nov. 17 that the local boot camp would close at the end of December.
“We’re inviting as many community leaders as we can get to attend this meeting and provide input to Sen. Umbarger,” said Blair who is a former Oswego mayor.
Umbarger is chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committe in Topeka and Blair hopes he can convince the governor’s office and Department of Corrections officials to change their minds.
Invitations have been extended to community leaders in Oswego, Parsons, Chetopa, Altamont, Labette County, Cherokee, Montgomery County and others.
The meeting will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday at the new Oswego Community Building at the fairgrounds.
“This camp has benefitted a large area of communities and has always been considered a successful and beneficial operation,” he said.
Blair is urging everyone to sign a petition in opposition to the closing of the LWCCC. The petition has been placed inside the Oswego city office.
He reiterated that the Oswego community can’t just stand idly by and let the state close a facility that has been such a great community asset.”
Blair said he was mayor of Oswego when the men’s camp first opened in 1991.
Both Sen. Umbarger and State Rep. Richard Proehl have been in contact with Werholtz and they will continue to argue for state officials to reconsider their action.
Both Umbarger and Proehl have emphasized that the boot camp concept is unique in the punishment of those convicted of crimes in Kansas and it has been quite successful. The recidivism rate has been lower for repeat offenders among those inmates who completed the programs at Oswego.
The women’s camp currently employs 14 workers and houses 27 inmates.The closing was again discussed at Monday’s meeting of the Labette County Commission.
Chairman Lonie Addis has been in constant contact with state and local leaders in an effort to show the county’s opposition to the camp closing. Addis also fears the men’s camp might close in the near future, too, which would put another 46 employees out of work. The camps are operated by Labette County under a contract with the Kansas State Department of Corrections.
A group of sheriff’s department officials from Sedgwick County were scheduled to tour the women’s facility on Tuesday as various proposals are being discussed for the camp’s continued use. A possible idea would be to house prisoners from Sedgwick and other counties since there is a shortage of cell space in most county jails.
However, Addis, Blair and a host of area community leaders are hoping they can change minds in Topeka before any such concepts are considered.
Sec. Werholtz said the state of Kansas will save more than $1 million annual by closing the women’s camp. No estimate was given on savings if the men’s camp is closed.
A delegation headed by Charles E. Simmons, Deputy Secretary for Facilities Management for the KDOC, was scheduled to tour the women’s facility today (Wednesday) to take inventory of personal property at the site.