Kansas prisons

Kansans with substance use problems say they are falling through the cracks of a legal system that’s more concerned with punishing them than getting them sober.

The census defines a prisoner’s home address as the prison they are held at, but there is some effort to change that.

Since August 2020, more than 200 people have started treatment for drug addiction at Crawford County Jail. Most continued their treatment after leaving jail.

Transgender inmates say they were targets of harassment by staff and inmates that put them in danger.

The Kansas Department of Corrections has been losing staff throughout 2021. Now, it doesn't have enough people to have in-person visitation at one of its prisons. Visits were also shutdown earlier in the pandemic.

There are more than 400 uniformed vacancies at Kansas Department of Corrections prisons. The worker shortage means corrections officers taking on tons of overtime and inmates are locked in their cells for long stretches.

Prisons run by the Kansas Department of Corrections aren't always air-conditioned, and inmates and staff who work inside say the heat can be unbearable.

The state's high court ruled the state's criminal registry rules aren't punitive and that they can be imposed even in crimes committed before the statutes demanding life-long check-ins were imposed.

Kansas prisons were hotbeds of coronavirus infections early in the pandemic, but vaccinations appear to have protected those inmates living in close quarters.

Kansas' COVID-19 cases are on the rise outside prisons. Inside, inmates say they're still not getting much information about the virus.