Kansas moves 113 inmates to Lansing prison after Wichita facility sees COVID-19 case
After a resident tested positive for the new coronavirus at a Wichita work release facility, the Kansas Department of Corrections on Sunday night moved more than 100 inmates to the Lansing Correctional Facility.
The Wichita Work Release Facility resident, a man older than 40, tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, marking the second Kansas correctional facility to have a confirmed case. At the other facility, the Lansing prison, 18 inmates and 21 staff contracted the virus.
On Sunday night, officials moved 113 residents from the dormitory housing unit where the man stayed to a newly reconstructed building at Lansing, about 30 miles northwest of Kansas City, for medical isolation and monitoring, corrections said Monday.
“The newly reconstructed building at Lansing provides us the ability to isolate these residents, while also keeping them separate from the current residents of the old Lansing facility,” the department’s secretary, Jeff Zmuda, said in a statement.
Corrections moved the inmates after consulting with officials from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. Zmuda called moving that many residents on short notice “a major undertaking.”
The state health department was working to determine who among staff and residents had been in close contact with the man. Similarly, the Sedgwick County Health Department is tracing contact with anyone outside the facility.
Before the Sunday move, 248 were housed at the Wichita facility, a minimum-custody state prison. The man who tested positive for the virus was among those moved to Lansing.
Last week, corrections launched an investigation into an hours-long disturbance at the Lansing prison, during which inmates scattered linens and set off fire extinguishers. A video posted Friday on YouTube claimed to be footage from inside the “riot.”
“They aren’t giving us no healthcare for this coronavirus,” one man said, panning the video past broken windows.
As of Monday, more than 1,370 people across Kansas had tested positive for COVID-19 in 61 counties. At least 62 have died.
This story was originally published April 13, 2020 at 1:28 PM.
