Kansas’ oldest prison, the Lansing Correctional Facility, was crumbling. Last year, lawmakers approved a $360 million overhaul to turn it into a high-tech marvel. The project adds just 27 new beds. Elsewhere, officials double-bunked cells to squeeze in a growing number of inmates. Kansas prisons are in crisis after decisions by state leaders have left them overcrowded and suffering from dangerous staff shortages, the Kansas City Star reports. The number of Kansas inmates grew 15 percent over the past decade as the number nationwide dropped. As inmates kept coming, burned-out corrections officers went years without raises. Inmate transfers and tight quarters led to riots. “We are in an absolute mess right now,” said Rep. John Carmichael, who sits on committees on corrections and the judiciary.
Overtime for corrections officers has soared to an estimated $11.2 million this year, up from $2.9 million five years ago. Millions more could be spent to house hundreds of inmates in private prisons. Lawmakers were warned repeatedly of the deteriorating situation. “While we knew the problem was urgent, we may not have fully appreciated how urgent it was,” said former state Sen. Jeff King, who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee. Kansas was in the middle of then-Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax experiment when a union for state employees told lawmakers in 2014 that staffing shortages had placed prisons at risk. Low pay is a big cause of the prison problems, said former state representative John Rubin, who chaired the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee. Not until riots rocked prisons in 2017 did Brownback announce emergency pay increases. The legislature followed with multiple pay raises, and the starting wage is $18.26 an hour. Kansas prisons hold 1,500 more people they did a decade ago. Overall beds have grown only 11 percent.