One incarcerated person is hospitalized and three staff members are injured after a riot at Lansing Correctional Facility in Leavenworth County, according to the Kansas Organization of State Employees.
KOSE wrote in a news release Friday that around 7 p.m., “an altercation among several inmates on A Unit at Lansing Correctional Facility broke out.” Staff members who responded to the incident were also injured, according to the release.
“Corrections officers instructed inmates on A Unit to return to and remain in their cells. The rest of the prison is fully secured. Without sufficient staff to enforce a lockdown however, many inmates on the rioting unit are refusing to comply,” according to KOSE. “As a result, the Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC) has deployed a tactical team that is currently on-site at LCF, while teams from other Corrections Facilities are either en route or on-site to help ensure inmate compliance.”
Lansing is the state’s largest and oldest prison for adult men, including numerous men with convictions out of Douglas County. Short staffing has been an ongoing issue, among other problems — such as “multiple attacks among inmates and against corrections staff, and reports of inmates having possession of staff radios on A Unit,” according to KOSE.
As of 10:25 p.m., all men had returned to their cells “with minimal resistance,” according to the union.
A 43-year-old man who was incarcerated at Lansing died earlier this week, the Kansas City Star reported.
“For years we have tried to work with KDOC, the Governor’s Office, and other state agencies to bring on enough staff at Lansing and other critically understaffed state facilities,” according to KOSE’s news release. “KDOC management continues to use the same formula while expecting different results, so incidents like the one tonight continue to occur. What is it going to take for KDOC to take staffing and safety seriously?”
Officials with the Kansas Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to a request for more information late Friday.
KDOC has a search tool at this link to find out the facility in which people are incarcerated.
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