Kansas 2025-2026 Regular Session

Kansas Senate Bill SB188

Introduced
2/4/25  

Caption

Requiring a secured release for release prior to trial when a person is charged with certain offenses and creating a mechanism for unsecured judicial release.

Summary

SB 188 revises Kansas pretrial release law by requiring secured release, with a minimum $50,000 cash or surety bond, for people charged with certain offenses and by limiting the use of release on recognizance for those charges. The bill applies these stricter release rules to several drug-related offenses, criminal street gang offenses, and racketeering-related offenses, while also preserving judicial discretion in limited circumstances such as when the court finds the defendant is not likely to reoffend, imposes pretrial supervision, or the defendant agrees to participate in a licensed or certified drug treatment program. The bill also rewrites Kansas’s unsecured release framework by replacing references to “release on recognizance” with “unsecured judicial release” and updating related statutes governing bond conditions, pretrial supervision, and release programs. It amends procedures for appearance bonds, court review of release conditions, and the operation of district court release programs, while also making conforming changes to statutes involving failure to appear, witness intimidation, and drug paraphernalia offenses. In addition, it strengthens certain drug-manufacturing and paraphernalia provisions and maintains enhanced penalties and restrictions tied to those offenses.

Impact

SB 188 would materially change Kansas criminal procedure by narrowing when defendants may be released without secured financial conditions and by imposing mandatory minimum cash-or-surety bail for specified offenses. It would amend multiple statutes in the Kansas criminal code, including drug manufacturing and paraphernalia laws, pretrial release provisions, failure-to-appear rules, gang-related bail rules, and racketeering provisions, while repealing the current versions of those sections and replacing them with updated language. The bill would affect defendants charged with the listed offenses, courts setting bond conditions, court services officers administering release programs, and treatment providers involved in pretrial diversion or supervision.

Sentiment

Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee testimony or votes in the provided materials, the overall sentiment appears to be policy-driven and punitive toward the covered offenses, with an emphasis on public safety, court appearance, and limiting pretrial release for higher-risk defendants. The bill’s structure suggests support for stricter bail conditions and more controlled pretrial supervision, especially in drug, gang, and racketeering cases. No contrary viewpoints are documented in the supplied context.

Contention

The main point of contention is likely the bill’s mandatory secured-bail requirement and its restriction on unsecured judicial release for certain offenses, which could be viewed as reducing judicial discretion and increasing pretrial detention for affected defendants. Another likely issue is the bill’s treatment of drug-related offenses, where it combines tougher release conditions with references to treatment-program exceptions, creating a tension between punishment and rehabilitation. Stakeholders most likely to disagree would include criminal justice reform advocates, defense attorneys, and civil liberties groups on one side, and prosecutors, law enforcement, and supporters of tougher pretrial controls on the other.

Companion Bills

No companion bills found.

Previously Filed As

KS HB2003

Establishing the veterans' valor property tax relief act providing for an income tax credit or refund for eligible individuals, modifying the definition of household income and increasing the appraised value threshold for eligibility of seniors and disabled veterans related to increased property tax claims and citing the section as the homeowners' property tax freeze program, providing property tax exemptions for certain personal property including watercraft, marine equipment, off-road vehicles, motorized bicycles and certain trailers, excluding internal revenue code section 1031 exchange transactions as indicators of fair market value, providing for certain exclusions from the prohibition of paying taxes under protest after a valuation notice appeal and providing four prior years' values on the annual valuation notice.

KS SB1

Modifying income tax rates for individuals, exempting all social security benefits from Kansas income tax, increasing the Kansas standard deduction and the Kansas personal exemption, increasing the income tax credit amount for household and dependent care expenses, decreasing the privilege tax normal tax, excluding internal revenue code section 1031 exchange transactions as indicators of fair market value for property tax valuation purposes, increasing the extent of property tax exemption for residential property from the statewide school levy, providing for certain transfers to the state school district finance fund and abolishing the local ad valorem tax reduction fund and the county and city revenue sharing fund.

KS HB2001

Authorizing the secretary of commerce to enter into agreements with major professional sports franchises to establish STAR bond projects for a major professional sports complex, providing for additional revenue sources, expanding the powers and discretion of the secretary and making other changes to the STAR bonds financing act to facilitate such projects, limiting the secretary’s authority to approve such projects to one year unless extended by the legislative coordinating council, authorizing the Kansas development finance authority to issue STAR bonds for such projects, transferring funds under certain circumstances from the state gaming revenues fund to the attracting professional sports to Kansas fund for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, and, if approved by the legislative coordinating council, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2026.

KS SB7

Authorizing federally licensed firearm dealers, in addition to county sheriffs, to receive applications for concealed carry licenses and forward such applications to the attorney general, prohibiting sheriffs from assessing any fee related to application services and allowing dealers to assess a fee related to application services not to exceed $20.

KS SB2

Eliminating the income limit to qualify for the subtraction modification exempting social security benefits, increasing the income tax credit amount for household and dependent care expenses, establishing the veterans' valor property tax relief act providing for an income tax credit or refund for eligible individuals, citing the increased property tax homestead refund claim section as the homeowners' property tax freeze program, decreasing the normal privilege tax rate, increasing the extent of property tax exemption for residential property from the statewide school levy, decreasing the rate of ad valorem tax imposed by a school district; providing for certain transfers to the state school district finance fund, reducing the state rate of tax on sales of food and food ingredients and modifying the percent credited to the state highway fund from revenue collected.

KS SB8

Exempting the sale of firearms, firearms accessories, ammunition, firearm safes and firearm safety devices from the retatilers' sales tax.

KS HB2002

Expanding medical assistance eligibility and enacting the cutting healthcare costs for all Kansans act.

KS SB4

Requiring all advance voting ballots be returned by 7:00 p.m. on election day.

KS HB2004

Authorizing counties to propose an earnings tax for ballot question.

KS SB6

Providing a sales tax exemption for sales of electricity to residential premises by municipally owned or operated utilities.

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