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KDOC converting Larned Correctional Mental Health into medium-security prison

The Hutchinson News - 5/26/2017

May 26--The Kansas Department of Corrections announced this week it is converting the Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility into a medium-security prison to house 18- to 25-year-old inmates with less than three years left to serve.

Plans are to move the 150 mental health inmates now housed at Larned to the much larger El Dorado Correctional Facility, about 30 miles northeast of Wichita.

Larned's mayor voiced concern about the loss of higher-paying jobs in the community from the plan, while an organization that represents correctional officers raised the issue of officer and inmate safety due to inadequate staffing levels it feels already exist at El Dorado.

The agency will make the moves gradually, with plans to start transitioning both facilities by midsummer, said Todd Fertig, KDOC communications director.

New program at Larned

The Larned facility, which currently houses inmates in single-man cells, has the capability to hold 300 regular medium-security inmates by making them shared cells, Fertig said.

The transformation will require little physical upgrade. Each 13-by-8-foot cell will include two bunks, two shelves, and a sink, toilet and locker.

The targeted new demographic for Larned is the state's highest recidivism group, officials said, which are younger men without high school diplomas or GEDs, and who have few marketable job skills.

As of June 30, 2016, there were 3,421 inmates, or 35 percent of the state's prison population, who lacked a high school diploma or GED, according to a 2016 DOC study. Of that group, more than 1,500 (or 45 percent) are set for release within the next five years, with more than 1,000 of them under age 35.

"The men eligible for this program would typically be guys with two or three years left on their sentences," Fertig said. "If you're 18 and get a five-year sentence, two years in you may be eligible to change facilities to be part of that program. It will take 18 months to two years to cycle through, learning skills and preparing for their release date."

The prison will partner with Barton Community College to offer inmates educational and vocational programs to enable them to get jobs and be contributing members of society upon release.

The college in Great Bend had already been working with the DOC, but plans to expand those programs.

"Exact details regarding the scope of the college's involvement have yet to be ironed out," said BCC spokesman Brandon Steinert in an email.

"For years, Barton Community College has enjoyed helping to meet the needs of students at the mental health facility," William Rains, coordinator of correctional education services at the college, stated in the DOC release. "Now, with the facility changing its mission to serve young men ages 18-25, we are thrilled to help them develop their skills to become outstanding members of our communities."

Housing more mentally ill

The Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility (LCMHF) opened in 1992 in response to a federal court order directing the DOC to better meet the long-term needs of mentally ill inmates, according to the agency's website.

"The increasing population of offenders requiring the level of mental health services provided at LCMHF has outgrown the available space," Fertig said. "Those services are currently being provided at both LCMHF and the El Dorado Correctional Facility. The services will now be consolidated at the El Dorado facility."

Consolidating the program into the 1,500-plus-bed El Dorado prison will enable the state to add 50 to 60 more beds to its behavioral health program, which serves offenders "with severe and persistent mental illness," according to the DOC.

EDCF is also home to the intake unit for male offenders entering prison in Kansas, so placing the behavioral health unit at the same place as intake will reduce the need to transport those offenders between facilities following intake, officials noted.

The state's Sexual Predator Treatment Program, which is housed at Larned State Security Hospital and under oversight of the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, won't be affected by the move. Also not changing are the 228-bed minimum-security West Unit at LCMHF, and the 115 beds at Larned State Hospital reserved for KDOC inmates who need that level of care.

Since 2014, the state has contracted with Tennessee-based Corizon Health -- one of the nation's largest for-profit health care providers for correctional facilities -- to provide medical, dental, pharmaceutical and mental health services at all its facilities, including medical staff at Larned.

The state, however, has struggled to fill other positions at the western Kansas facility for the past several years.

Being closer to the much larger Wichita population should make that easier, officials believe.

"The proximity of Wichita is going to allow us to recruit staff to the El Dorado facility as we need," Fertig said. "We just weren't able to accommodate those needs at Larned."

Corizon Health currently has 35 staff assigned to LCMHF. It will move some of those positions to EDCF, according to the release.

The overall number of state jobs at LCFMHF, however, will not be reduced by the mission change, Fertig said.

Concerns raised

Larned Mayor William Nusser said city officials are concerned about the loss of better-paying jobs with the conversion.

"These are professional-type jobs," Nusser said. "In the mental health field they have a higher pay scale, so even though they may not be reducing the number of jobs, it's not the same pay."

"Some were told they could have the same job at El Dorado, but in a rural community, if your spouse is here and your kids are here, it's a concern," he said. "It's not easy to relocate. It's even harder if you own a home."

"We're a small community," he said. "If you lose 30 jobs, it affects a lot more than 30 people; it's 60 to 100. It means more houses on the market. The economic impact is concerning."

Nusser said he was not familiar with the release policy on inmates from a traditional prison, so he did not know if that might become an issue for the community. With the mental health facility, the state usually returns inmates to their home community on release, he said.

The News was unable to reach law enforcement officials at the Larned Police Department and Pawnee County Sheriff's Office for comment.

There is also some frustration, Nusser said, with the lack of information from KDOC about exactly what will be happening and when.

"It's really vague," he said. "There's no requirement they inform us, but KDADS, at the state hospital, does a good job of including the community members that have an interest and getting more input on what's going on. There is still so much unknown, not just for the community, but the employees, and we feel bad for them not to know what is or is not happening."

An official with the Kansas Organization of State Employees, which represents correctional officers in the state, said they learned of the plan on Tuesday.

"KOSE is concerned for the safety and welfare of the mentally ill inmates and the EDCF correctional staff as the transfer is made from LCMHF," KOSE Executive Director Robert Choromanski stated in an email.

A recent public safety survey commissioned by KOSE, which was done by correctional staff, found the inmate population at EDCF has already increased by 400 prisoners, "while EDCF management runs shifts with minimum staffing levels," Choromanski stated.

"EDCF's staffing levels are inadequate, as there are 60 vacant positions, and the double bunking of inmates per cell in a maximum security facility such as EDCF exacerbates the staff to inmate ratio," he wrote. "Currently staff are asked to work mandatory overtime, which puts inmates and staff at a higher risk for injury. Mandatory overtime also places the public at risk."

Cheryl Cadue, in the Office of the Secretary of Corrections, agreed their were 60 openings El Dorado and that staff may be required to work overtime in order to have adequate manpower, but said the population at El Dorado has only grown by 100.

Finally, Choromanski stated, equipment that EDCF correctional officers use is "in poor condition and in short supply."

"Ballistic vests and stab vests don't properly fit and despite multiple requests from the correctional officers to get vests that will fit, the requests have gone unanswered," he stated.

Cadue also denied this claim.

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