Kansas corrections officials want about $450 million for a new facility to replace their prison in Hutchinson, which is more than a century old.
While much of the facility is in disrepair, officials say the state needs to improve the prison’s conditions or risk ending up in federal court.
Jeff Zmuda, secretary of the Kansas Department of Corrections, recently told lawmakers the crumbling prison lacks air conditioning in most areas. In the summer, the temperature in prison cells can reach 90 degrees.
Zmuda said that is a safety and security concern for both inmates and prison staff.
“If it gets up to 75 degrees in my living room, I'm cranky,” Zmuda said. “Well, it gets real cranky in prison when it's 85 degrees in a housing unit.”
Zmuda said the prison also isn’t compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and many of the cells are smaller than 50 square feet. The American Correctional Association recommends a cell should be at least 70 square feet.
Zmuda said those poor conditions could result in a federal lawsuit. He said subjecting inmates to the current environment could be viewed in court as a violation of their civil rights.
“There’s really a movement by folks,” Zmuda said, “to say that’s cruel and unusual punishment.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas has called the lack of air conditioning at the Hutchinson prison “inhumane and unacceptable.” The organization said extreme heat in the summer can harm elderly inmates and those with mental health issues and high blood pressure.
Prisons without air conditioning in Florida and Texas have been scrutinized as some inmates have died amid extreme heat. Summer temperatures across the Midwest also continue to rise each year because of climate change.
Advocacy groups have filed federal lawsuits in other states over dangerous heat in prisons. A lawsuit in Texas filed earlier this year argued that inmates are being “cooked to death.”
Esmie Tseng, communications director for ACLU of Kansas, said the organization doesn’t plan to sue over the Hutchinson prison’s current conditions, despite receiving many complaints from inmates.
She said the state should want to improve its prison conditions for the health and safety of its inmates and staff, not because it might face legal action.
Tseng also said building a new facility won’t address other civil rights concerns at the prison, like little access to food and a lack of mental health or medical treatment.
“It can’t just be a question of air conditioning and air flow,” Tseng said. “It’s a lot of different things.”
Building costs
The state’s proposed plan would build a new facility on land just south of the current prison. It is estimated to cost about $453 million.
The new construction would add more than 400 prison cells to the facility, for a total of 2,192 cells. It would also include an additional 20,000 square feet of space for educational programs.
Zmuda told lawmakers a new building would be much more cost-effective than spending money on capital improvement projects for the current facility. The prison has about $80 million of needed infrastructure repairs, and none of that would address environmental concerns like the lack of air conditioning, he said.
State lawmakers will need to sign off on funding for a new facility. They could pursue bond financing to break up the costs over a period of time.
But lawmakers may need to act quickly. Republican Rep. Kyle Hoffman of Coldwater said construction costs are expected to grow the longer the state waits to take action.
“It’s a lot of money,” Hoffman said, “but it’s only going to get more expensive.”
Dylan Lysen reports on social services and criminal justice for the Kansas News Service. You can email him at dlysen (at) kcur (dot) org.
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