Lawmaker: Deporting foreign inmates may save money

Published Nov. 11, 2009 at 5:17 p.m.

Nearly 300 inmates in Kansas prisons identify themselves as foreign nationals, which has prompted a key state legislator to suggest some should be deported to help ease the state's budget problems.

Corrections Secretary Roger Werholtz, though, is wary of a broad effort to deport dozens of the 293 inmates in question, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported Wednesday. Werholtz said some inmates might not be held in prison in their home nations and might try to return illegally to the United States.

The issue of Kansas confining foreign nationals arose during a meeting Tuesday of the Legislature's Joint Committee on Parole Board Oversight. Its chairwoman, Rep. Pat Colloton, a Leawood Republican, said deporting some of those inmates could be beneficial.

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