Lansing Correctional Facility
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Prison from southwest | |
| Location | Lansing, Kansas |
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| Coordinates | 39°15′04″N 94°53′37″W / 39.2511°N 94.8936°WCoordinates: 39°15′04″N 94°53′37″W / 39.2511°N 94.8936°W |
| Status | Open |
| Security class | Maximum, Medium, Minimum |
| Capacity | 2,489 |
| Opened | July, 1868 |
Lansing Correctional Facility (LCF) is a state prison operated by the Kansas Department of Corrections. LCF is located in Lansing, Kansas, in Leavenworth County. LCF, along with the Federal Bureau of Prison's United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth, the United States Army Corrections Command's United States Disciplinary Barracks, and Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility in Fort Leavenworth are the four major prisons that give the Leavenworth area its reputation as a corrections center.
History
The facility was originally known as the Kansas State Penitentiary (KSP) and was built by prison labor in the 1860s. The name was changed to Lansing Correctional Facility in 1990. Construction of the cell houses was completed in 1867. The centre began housing Kansas inmates felons in July 1868 and housed felons from Oklahoma from 1889-1909.
The prison stopped admitting prisoners temporarily in the spring of 1896 and January 1900 as a result of the spread of smallpox in Kansas.
A New Cemetery for the Kansas Penitentiary at Lansing
Leavenworth, Dec. 6,1899
(Kansas City Star ~ December 6, 1899 ~ Submitted by Lori DeWinkler)
Warden Tomlinson of the Kansas penitentiary has a force of prisoners moving the "convict graveyard". This graveyard is close to the northeast corner of the main prison wall, and within a stone's throw of the women's department. It became necessary to use the ground and part of the clay in the graveyard for the new penitentiary brick plant. The work of moving the bodies has been in progress several days, and if the weather continues pleasant, it will be completed during the week. In all, 130 bodies of convicts were buried in the Kansas penitentiary graveyard. Everybody except one is that of a convict. The exception is that of a stranger who died near the prison walls where he was trying to seek shelter from the cold two years ago. The new graveyard is on a ridge a quarter of a mile southeast of the prison walls, and is a beautiful place overlooking the surrounding country.
Rex Pryor is currently Warden of LCF
Facilities
LCF consists of two units with different levels of security. The Central Unit includes an 11-acre (45,000 m2) maximum security facility and a 46-acre (190,000 m2) medium security facility. The East Unit includes an 85-acre (340,000 m2) minimum security facility.
Capital punishment
Executions of state, federal, and military prisoners were performed by hanging at KSP until 1965.[1] When the death penalty was reinstated in Kansas in 1994, it was determined that executions for adult males would be performed at LCF by lethal injection.[2] No executions have been conducted since it was reinstated.
Programs
The InnerChange Freedom Initiative is offered at LCF.[3] Since PrisonFellowship has withdrawn funding, the program has continued on under the name Brothers in Blue.
Notable prisoners
- Perry Smith and Richard Hickock were convicted for the 1959 murder of four members of the Herbert Clutter family and hanged in 1965. The story of the Clutter murders and the execution of Hickock and Smith drew national attention as a result of the Truman Capote novel, In Cold Blood.
- Lowell Lee Andrews, a University of Kansas sophomore convicted of the murders of his parents and sister on November 28, 1958, a crime for which he was later executed.
- George York and James Latham, a 1961 spree killer team, were the most recent individuals executed by the state of Kansas.
- Rev. Tom Bird, convicted in 1985 of killing his wife, Sandy. The case was made into the CBS movie Murder Ordained.
- Alvin Francis "Creepy Karpis" Karpowicz met Fred Barker here and later formed the Barker-Karpis Gang.
- Harvey Bailey, cohort of Machine Gun Kelly.
- Serial killer Richard Grissom Jr., convicted of murdering three women in 1990, whose remains have yet to be found. He was also suspected of killing a woman in Wichita, Kansas, and matched the psychological profile completed during that investigation by Wichita Police Chief Rick Stone.
- Serial killer Francis Donald Nemechek, convicted for the murders of four women, as well as the 3-year-old child of one of the victims.
- Scott Roeder, convicted of murder for shooting Dr. George Tiller in May 2009.
Notes
- ↑ State of Kansas. "Lansing Correctional Facility History". Archived from the original on 2006-12-06. Retrieved 2006-12-12.
- ↑ Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty. "Kansas Law". Retrieved 2006-12-12.
- ↑ "Kansas." InnerChange Freedom Initiative. Retrieved on November 24, 2010.
External links
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