By Tim Carpenter and Sherman Smith
Tribune News Service
TOPEKA — Three employees at Lansing Correctional Facility became the first Kansas prison staff to test positive for coronavirus and brought into focus the challenge of operating an overcrowded state prison system during a pandemic.
Jeff Zmuda, secretary at the Kansas Department of Corrections, said Tuesday night the individuals testing positive included a man in his 20s and two women over the age of 40. No other information about the employees was released in an effort to conceal their identity.
“With a virus that moves and changes as quickly as the coronavirus we anticipated that this day may come,” Zmuda said.
State and county officials in Kansas have reported 482 positive cases of coronavirus and 10 fatalities linked to the infection — as of 10 a.m. Wednesday.
There is a movement in Kansas and other states to reduce populations in jails because the facilities weren’t built for social distancing. Inmates share cells and are grouped in confined spaces.
In March, about one-fifth of the Shawnee County Jail population was released. In Louisiana, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said the first federal inmate to die from coronavirus was Patrick Jones, 49, and serving a 27-year sentence.
“A prison sentence should not become a death sentence,” said Udi Ofer, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s justice division.
“The conditions and reality of incarceration make prisons and jails tinderboxes for the spread of disease.”
Based on advice of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the state Department of Corrections ordered a medical inquiry to determine which staff and residents were in close contact with infected employees. Prison officials plan to notify people who were in contact with anyone confirmed to have been infected.
Those individuals are to be placed in medical isolation to be monitored for symptoms of the virus.
“With the support and guidance of KDHE and Gov. Kelly, and the hard work of our staff members, we are ready to care for our residents and those we serve in the community,” Zmuda said.
It’s not clear whether the individuals were correctional officers or held other positions at Lansing. The Lansing Correctional Facility is the oldest and largest state correctional facility in Kansas.
Serving only men, the facility currently has 1,660 offenders and a rated capacity of 1,906. The population would be larger, but some Kansas inmates are being held in other states due to crowding.
Currently, Kansas has a total prison capacity of 9,017. As of Monday, the Department of Corrections reported the state prison system had responsibility for 9,812 inmates. Facilities in Hutchinson, El Dorado, Topeka, Ellsworth and Winfield were over the listed capacity.