Wabaunsee County Kansas Inmate Jail Records

Jail Records Are Not Always Created Equal

You have probably seen the adverts on TV for free jail records in Wabaunsee County, Kansas. These seemingly innocent looking advertisements encourage one to do a criminal background check on someone they know and are wondering if that person is free of crime. So what are the real deal? Is it true that you can find out the criminal history of any person in a matter of minutes or hours? Or is it a scam?

Jail records are kept in the local jail in each and every county across America. Although they are supposed to be publicly available information, they are not. There is a system in place called The Freedom of Information Act that requires state and local government agencies to make public any public records that are in their possession, under the terms of the law. However, jail records are still not in the public domain, and it is a legal grey area as to why that is.

The reason for the failure of these public records to be freely available is primarily privacy concerns. Criminal court records are held confidential, and to make them open to the general public would mean the release of a lot of highly sensitive information about people. This information has been used in a wide ranging way by the media and press, as well as private individuals. The result is that we don’t even really know who our friends and neighbours really are.

In the past, jail records were only released from jail when a person had been convicted of a serious felony, or when a person had served a sentence of more than a year. However, in 2021, this rule was relaxed so that a person can have their criminal conviction overturned if they can prove that they were not actually charged with a serious offence. The result is that anyone can have access to these criminal records at any time. Although this may seem like a boon to the public, in actual fact it has caused problems for law abiding citizens.

There was a recent case in which the disclosure of jail records led to the discovery of child abuse material. The police arrested a man on suspicion of molestation, and the man’s supposed jail record was found at his home. There were no jail records to be found, nor any indication of his incarceration. As a result, the case was opened, and several victims came forward claiming that they had been sexually abused by this man.

Despite being a felony, there was no intention of trying this man for a serious crime. However, the lack of jail records meant that he could buy a gun, and kill as many people as he wanted before being caught. Thankfully, the courts decided to release this man, and he was killed by the police. At the time, it looked as if we had saved a few lives by releasing this man who had shown no remorse. The lesson to be learned here is that when dealing with criminal offenders, the mere thought of jail records can put many law abiding citizens on the verge of doing harm. It is therefore vital to have access to these types of files so that we can protect ourselves and our communities.