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Sheriffs of Reno County: Randy Henderson

April 7, 2021 by Jim Potter 4 Comments

https://jimpotterauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Sheriffs-of-Reno-County-32-Randy-Henderson.mp3

· Randy Henderson (b. 1954)

Sheriff 2002-2019

·

Reno County Sheriff Randy Henderson. Posted with permission of copyright holder, photographer Stephen Rosebrough, Timekeepers Photography. Author’s collection

It’s Election night, Tuesday, April 2, 2013, in Hutchinson, Kansas, at Reno County Sheriff Randy Henderson’s house. Smiling, new-jail supporters can’t believe the overwhelming success of the ½ cent sales tax vote. Unofficially, the bond issue is passing by an incredible 77.4%.

The result is no miracle; instead, it’s the outcome from many conscientious individuals working together for a single community goal, led by the hard-working, effective, and forward-thinking sheriff.

*

In 1971, when the new $1 million city-county law enforcement center (LEC) was opened in Hutchinson, the Reno County commissioners and the public were pleased with the building.

No one was happier with a new jail than the jailers who worked for Sheriff Charles Heidebrecht. The cells in the old jail on the fifth floor of the courthouse had become such a security risk that the jailers used extra locks and chains on the doors because of broken locking mechanisms.

Soon, at the LEC, the first jail-design flaw was discovered. It was smelled before it was spotted. Inexplicably, the air vents had been intentionally placed in the floors of the cells, not in the walls. When prisoners decided to create havoc, they would simply clog up the toilet and watch it overflow into the ventilation system, causing unsanitary conditions.

Two other areas that had been overlooked in the planning, was an emergency fire exit, and the need for separation of juveniles from adult inmates.

*

In 2006, Reno County Sheriff Randy Henderson and community leaders attempted to pass a ¼ cent sales tax to build a $20.7 million 208-bed jail, directly north of the courthouse. The proposal failed, 54.2% against and 45.8% in favor.

Henderson learned from the defeat.

If he was still sheriff the next time there was a jail bond issue, he wanted a proposal that answered more questions. Henderson promised himself that he’d make sure the project explained how the main jail and the jail annex would be repurposed and include the remodeling costs in the package.

A year later, Sheriff Henderson was ready to assemble an improved jail task force with an updated plan, but he was forced to wait seven long years until 2013 for another public vote.

*

Originally published in 1865, titled Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

“Can you believe it?” asked Randy Henderson who resembled the Cheshire cat who couldn’t stop smiling in Lewis Carroll’s* Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. “We did it. It passed.”

“You made it real,” said one woman with a lopsided smile, who resembled a Botox patient or stroke victim. She was just one happy face in a celebratory crowd. “You helped educate the public. A majority of the inmates in the jail have not been convicted of anything.”

“Yes,” agreed the sheriff, “it was difficult to change the narrative. People believe that inmates get what they deserve. We reminded them that many prisoners are awaiting trial; they’re supposed to be presumed innocent until found guilty.

“We also told the public about our dedicated officers. People tend to forget that our staff have to work in the same environment 12 hours a day as the inmates. Officers planning a career as a jail employee are basically sentenced to 25 years behind bars.”

“Sheriff, you’ve come a long way from your days of lock ‘em up and throw away the key,” said a former drug enforcement officer. “What happened to you?”

“I changed the day I became sheriff,” said Henderson. “Now I remind people, ‘not only bad people go to jail, sometimes good people make mistakes and end up behind bars.’ And the jail overcrowding prevents us from offering educational programs, better health care, and work release.”

As people kept arriving, everyone had smiles plastered on their faces, expressing their happiness, using their whole mouth, cheeks, and eyes. A stranger might have questioned the purity of the tap water or if the rib sauce, brownies, and drinks had been spiked with illegal substances.

“It’s ironic that in order to get the public to vote for a future jail, you had to show them all the deficiencies of the old one,” commented a smiling supporter radiating happiness.

“We had to be transparent and admit the flaws of a poorly designed, worn-out, overcrowded jail,” replied Henderson. “Captain Larry Dyer never turned down a request for a public tour.”

“Dyer came through,” said a voice from the other room.

“Only by allowing the citizenry to see the poor living conditions could they grasp the vision of how much better it could become,” said Henderson. “Without the concrete experience of visiting the jail, people didn’t know what was true. I really believe that the tours allowed visitors to develop understanding and empathy for everyone locked up behind bars—the innocent and the guilty.”

“I still can’t believe it passed,” said a generous donor who had helped pay for a brochure’s printing and mailing.

As Henderson looked around the room, he saw beaming, pleased people. “It was an amazing effort; it took all of us. Thank you,” he said

“The blue-ribbon committee worked on this for almost two years,” added Henderson. “Lee Spence was incredibly thorough.” Lee served as chairman of the jail committee that studied the issues and developed a plan for the 250-bed jail and courthouse security, and Steven Becker, a member and former judge, always gave his balanced view.

“We’re lucky Dan returned home to Hutchinson from his security job at Disney World,” said Henderson, as his body faded in the shadows except for his bright Cheshire grin. “The county commissioners, including Chairman Deming and Brad Dillon, promoted the project, preferring a sales tax payment plan over an increase in property taxes.”

“Don’t forget the News,” shouted a reporter.

“The reporting of the Hutchinson News was exceptional,” agreed Henderson, “We’re lucky to have a professional paper. It provided in-depth coverage of the issues, and unlike in 2006, the editor didn’t squabble about the total number of beds. Voters understood that spending $400,000 a year to house Reno County prisoners out-of-county because of overcrowding was throwing away good money.”

*

It was quite the gathering. Eventually, people would double-check the vote count before calling it a night and going home. Celebrations would continue for days, if not weeks. The results of the vote would impact people for years, even decades.

All the smiles in one place at one time because of one singular event, had caused the release of an enormous amount of the dopamine hormone.

The result was real group happiness.

*

On the drive home from the winning bond-vote celebration, a 60-something-year-old turns the radio to her favorite oldies-but-goodies music station.

A recognizable psychedelic rock song begins to a familiar marching beat. The driver is transported back to the 1960s in San Francisco. Her laugh-lines deepen as she cranks up the volume and belts out a lyrical line.

Grace Slick of the rock group Jefferson Airplane sings “White Rabbit,” named for a character in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.

Slick wrote the song after being raised listening to Carroll’s book being read to her by her parents, and when older, reading it herself.

The singer’s haunting imagery illustrates the effects of taking hallucinogenic drugs.

Her song describes a curious Alice, a hookah-smoking caterpillar, but no smiling Cheshire cat.

*

*Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898), an English writer of children’s fiction and fantasy literature, was better known by his pen name, Lewis Carroll. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) is commonly known as Alice in Wonderland.

*

Until next time, happy writing and reading.

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Filed Under: Blog posts Tagged With: Alice in Wonderland, Alices's Adventures in Wonderland, Brad Dillon, Captain Larry Dyer, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, Cheshire cat, Dan Deming, Disney World, Election night, Grace Slick, Hutchinson Kansas, Hutchinson News, Jefferson Airplane, Jim Potter, Kansas Authors Club, Lee Spence, Lewis Carroll, Reno County, Reno County Commission, Reno County courthouse, Reno County Sheriff, Reno County Sheriff Randy Henderson, Sheriff Randy Henderson, Sheriffs of Reno County, Steven Becker, White Rabbit

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Comments

  1. Marilyn Bolton says

    April 7, 2021 at 11:43 am

    Quite the upswing in tone from the chapter re the Ruebke murders!
    Huge achievement for law enforcement and for the community to finally have the jail issue resolved!!

    Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      April 7, 2021 at 12:03 pm

      Yes, Reno Countians came through.

      Reply
  2. Pat Bussen says

    April 7, 2021 at 2:10 pm

    As a diehard Jefferson Airplane/Grace Slick fan, I think that’s a really cool and fitting way to end your story with an inclusion of the tune, “White Rabbit”. Grace would like that!

    Reply
    • Jim Potter says

      April 10, 2021 at 1:36 pm

      Thanks, Pat. How can anyone listen to Jefferson Airplane and not be transported somewhere to some time?

      Reply

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Denise Low, author of Jackalope (Red Mountain Press)

Jim Potter is a cop, retired, but he brings deep understanding of this job to his novel Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery. This layered novel has literary dimensions as characters explore crisis situations. Congratulations to this fine writer for his debut novel.

Rebecca from Proud Police Wife

Taking Back the Bullet is an emotional, yet captivating novel. Jim Potter does a superb job of intertwining each character and putting their individual identities on display. All law enforcement storylines are a true reflection of Potter’s years as a police officer because they are realistic and relatable. This is a book I highly recommend.

Dennis Perrin, educator

Masterful storytelling, exquisite character development, so real as to HURT and HOPE, a real page turner. Begs for stage, screenwriters, and visual episodic development a.k.a. TV series . . . Thanks Jim Potter for telling it like it is AND providing us visions of how it could be. Well done!

Rebecca Schillaci

As a former law enforcement officer, I found the story very relatable as it details the life of a law enforcement officer and the struggles some face throughout their careers. . . Taking Back the Bullet is a journey of understanding, respect, and forgiveness . . .

Sheryl Remar

I enjoyed the different stories of this book because Tom, James, and Suanna, the three main characters, represent in their own way the different struggles with themselves and society’s idea of what is normal.

John & Cindy Morrill, 20 years Air Force retired, 17 years law enforcement

I enjoyed your book. When I am looking for a new read, I always read the first page, last page and choose a random page somewhere in the middle before I decide to buy it. You had me on all three pages. I also like reading a book where you can relate to the characters and the settings in which they live and work. It makes a story more realistic if you can say, I am familiar with the area; I know where that town is or I have traveled that street. It was easy to relate to the characters. In one way or another, I have met them all somewhere in my journeys.

Judy Hawk

. . . I was impressed with the Native American information as well as the depth of character development . . . .

Wynona Winn, PhD, retired school superintendent

Three main characters walk different paths but with the same destination – each coping with his or her self-discovery, self-identity, and self-realization. Much like their earlier counterparts – Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield – their journeys are often joyous, often tedious and often tragic.

Diana Dester

Good story line, building the characters along the way. Great job!

Deb Theis, LSCSW, clinical therapist/hypnotherapist

Jim Potter has done it again! After his book, Cop in the Classroom: Lessons I’ve Learned, Tales I’ve Told, Jim has written another great work. In Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery, Jim Potter takes us on an insightful journey into the lives and relationships of numerous characters. Jim is such a talented storyteller that the reader quickly becomes immersed and has a ‘bonding experience’ with each of the characters, feeling their joy, fear, passion and pain. Jim’s novel speaks to the empowerment of persistence with the characters as they work through their trials. As a therapist, I appreciated the heartfelt struggles from each of the characters and their diversity. I also found value in the novel’s understanding of society’s misunderstanding of both mental health and other conditions in which people struggle. The novel contains rich exposure to various realities that many of us do not know about . . . but should. When I finished this captivating novel, I was wanting to read the sequel! It was an honor and a wonderful, mesmerizing experience reading this book. Congratulations, Jim!

Jane Holzrichter

I finished it last night around midnight. What a great piece of work. It kept me intrigued all the way to the end.

Sean McArdle, Winchester, England

Retired police officer Potter’s novel centres on very disparate characters and through the tried and tested means of gradually introducing each one, builds a sense of anticipation about what is going to happen to them. This often used methodology is not easy to do well but is superbly handled by Potter who knows how to give enough detail to bring the characters to life, yet not too much so as to slow down the pace of the developing story. A climactic event affects the main characters and it is at this point Potter’s deep knowledge of people and police procedures really hits home; page by page we read how a seemingly simple, though terrible occurrence, can have huge consequences. To Potter’s credit the story does not have a completely conclusive or simplistic ending. Instead it leaves the reader thinking about how the events of a single minute can affect lives forever. I would whole heartedly recommend this book not as a crime novel or even as a novel about crime but as a beautiful and positive affirmation about what it is to be human and how ultimately it is relationships which matter more than events.

Morgan Penner

Taking Back the Bullet is a novel that provides the reader with a window into the world of law enforcement. As the novel unfolds, the reader is able to see how split-second decisions alter the lives of the main characters in the story. Taking Back the Bullet also explores how humanity is impacted by mental illness. One of my favorite quotes from Taking Back the Bullet is “We’re all just a critical moment from being disabled or mentally ill, and we don’t want to think about it.” The novel also provides the reader an opportunity to gain a better understanding of how mental illness impacts the individuals, their family, friends, and society. Taking Back the Bullet is a story of forgiveness and overcoming life’s struggles and tragedies.

Steve Becker

I’m impressed. It was an excellent read. . . . I hope you continue with more projects in the future.

Larry Kruckman, anthropologist

Jim Potter displays ethnographic skills in Taking Back the Bullet: Trajectories of Self-Discovery, creating vivid scenes and fascinating characters. The Greeks had a word for subcultures and people’s behavior: ‘ethos,’ or ‘ways of being.’ In colorful, sometimes marvelous detail, this novel captures various people and settings . . . the ethos of rural Kansas: a jail, art fair, powwow, rehab center, courtroom, albinos, and even someone in the throes of postpartum depression. So detailed are the descriptions that they must be drawn from the author’s personal experience. Besides the artfully created characters such as the struggling jailer and husband Tom Jennings, local artist Jesse Thomas, and Native American Joe Morningcloud, there is a tight story line that grabs your attention and won’t let go. Human tensions, love, conflict, joys and sorrows are all there. Magically, all the many pieces come together in a final crescendo, giving hope that even when we find ourselves in big trouble we can survive. This is a novel I highly recommend!

Larry Kruckman
Anthropologist
Karleen Wilson-Moon

Terrific story relevant to today’s social issues . . . well written . . . likable characters . . . insightful perspective from an insider in law enforcement.

Karleen Wilson-Moon

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