The KDOC was among 18 projects receiving a total of nearly $10 million through the three-year grant to aid in ensuring compliance with the implementation of Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) standards.

The funding will be used to implement an internal classification instrument, create a full-time PREA coordinator position, hire a corrections counselor for the Reception & Diagnostic Unit (RDU) at El Dorado Correctional Facility, and hire a corrections counselor for the Enhanced Management Unit (EMU) at Hutchinson Correctional Facility.

The internal classification instrument would identify potentially aggressive inmate and potentially vulnerable inmates to aid staff in making housing and program and job placements. The data collected also would aid in guiding the KDOC’s policies and practices and in providing federally required PREA statistical data.

A full-time PREA Coordinator enables the KDOC to dedicate one staff member to ensuring compliance with PREA standards including furthering education efforts that encompass inmates, those offenders under supervision and KDOC staff.

The two corrections counselors positions will fill gaps in two critical areas: the KDOC’s RDU at El Dorado Correctional Facility where all male inmates are admitted to the KDOC’s custody and the EMU at Hutchinson Correctional Facility which provides oversight of inmates who have displayed predatory behavior during their incarceration.

Since 2002, the KDOC has had a written policy mandating a zero tolerance toward all forms of sexual abuse. With funding, the KDOC can ensure the enforcement of this policy and enact practices that fulfill the KDOC’s commitment to building a safer Kansas - beginning with protecting the wellbeing of inmates in KDOC custody and offenders under KDOC supervision.