Bill
HB 2389
Requires magistrates to consider prior sex-crime convictions when setting appearance bonds and release conditions, potentially raising bonds or tightening pretrial releases.
Status & next steps
- Introduced: February 4, 2025
- Hearing: Wednesday, March 12, 2025 — 3:30 PM, Room 582‑N
- Referred to: House Committee on Judiciary (hearing scheduled)
- Related/companion: SB 103 (companion)
- Sponsors (as reported): Neal Carter (primary); Terra Costa Howard (primary)
- Bill action: Amendments proposed to K.S.A. 22‑2802 and 22‑2803; repeal of existing sections noted in the filed version.
Purpose / intent
- Require magistrates to take a defendant’s prior convictions for certain sex crimes into account when setting the amount of an appearance bond and the conditions of release if the defendant is charged with specified sex offenses. The stated intent is to strengthen consideration of prior sexual‑offense history in pretrial release decisions to better protect public safety and victims.
Key provisions (what the bill would change)
- Amends Kansas statutes governing release prior to trial (K.S.A. 22‑2802 and 22‑2803) to add an express requirement that magistrates consider prior convictions for certain sex crimes when determining:
- The amount of an appearance bond; and
- Conditions of release (including no‑contact and other protective conditions).
- Leaves the magistrate’s discretion intact for imposing additional conditions reasonably necessary to assure appearance and public safety, but makes prior sex‑offense convictions a required factor to be considered.
- Other existing pretrial factors (nature of the offense, ties to community, criminal history, flight risk, danger to victims/witnesses, etc.) remain in place; the bill supplements those with an explicit focus on prior sex‑offense convictions.
Who would be affected
- Defendants charged with covered sex offenses: prior sex‑offense convictions could lead magistrates to set higher bonds or stricter conditions of release.
- Victims and the public: potential for increased protective conditions or longer pretrial detention in cases where relevant priors exist.
- Judicial branch and court staff: magistrates, clerks, court services officers and other personnel would need to identify and evaluate relevant prior convictions during arraignment/bond hearings.
- Law enforcement and pretrial services: may be asked to provide additional criminal history information and to implement more stringent supervision or monitoring conditions.
Potential impacts and fiscal effects
- Judicial Branch: Office of Judicial Administration indicates the bill could increase time spent by judicial and non‑judicial personnel on processing, researching and hearing bond matters, producing an increase in expenditures.
- Fiscal note (Kansas Division of the Budget, March 3, 2025): a fiscal effect is possible but cannot be reasonably estimated; any costs are not reflected in the FY 2026 Governor’s Budget Report.
Procedural/timing notes
- The bill edits existing Kansas pretrial‑release statutes and will proceed through the Judiciary Committee hearing process (scheduled March 12, 2025). If advanced, it would require further floor action and Senate consideration before becoming law and taking effect according to the statute’s effective date provisions.
Limitations / caveats
- The file contains multiple unrelated texts titled “HB 2389” from other states; this summary focuses on the Kansas criminal‑procedure version described in the fiscal note and the Kansas “as introduced” language (amendment of K.S.A. 22‑2802 and 22‑2803).
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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