The KDOC’s graduated incentive level system requires that inmates earn privileges in areas which include personal property, visitation, canteen expenditures and eligibility for incentive pay.

Inmates progress through the four-level system by complying with KDOC rules and regulations, participating in programs and practicing pro-social behavior. Once earned, privileges may be lost for non-compliance as an inmate’s behavior determines which incentive levels he/she can earn while incarcerated. Level three is the highest incentive level possible. All inmates enter the Reception and Diagnostic Unit at Intake Level.

Inmate Privileges and Incentive Level System: Attachment A, IMPP 11-101

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History (LCF)
1859	Kansas Legislature passed authorized the construction of the Kansas State Penitentiary (KCP)
1861	On November 18, a tract of 40 acres on Seven Mile Creek was purchased for $600 from Almira Budlong.
1862	John P. Mitchell served as KSP's first warden.
1863	Three directors, William Dunlap, John Wilson and S.S. Ludlum, were appointed to oversee KSP. After touring several prisons in eastern states, the group decided to model the KSP after a prison in Joliet, Illinois.
1864	Construction, accomplished using prison labor, began on the north wing near the site of what was known as the Oklahoma Jail.
1867	Following several delays due to the Civil War, the main building was completed.
1868	With the completion of the north wing, KSP began accepting prisoners in July.
1872	The dining hall was completed.
1875	A guard force of 26 men watched over 379 prisoners including 30 federal inmates. The prison also housed inmates from Oklahoma until 1909.
	Prisoners were governed by what was known as the "silent system," meaning no inmates were allowed to converse with one another under any circumstances.
1881	A need to keep inmates occupied caused the state to sink a coal shaft that would supply KSP and all other state institutions. The need to transport the coal brought in the railroads and soon the area around the prison became a railway crossroads. Houses and businesses were erected giving way for the area to be called the Town of Progress. The prison also began to manufacture twine. The coal mine  and twine operations closed in 1947 due to high operating costs and low demand.
1885	Inmates began work on the prison farm. Aside from raising crops, inmates also oversaw a dairy herd and poultry and hog farm. By 1961, the prison farm covered 2,000 acres. By 1975, farm operations were discontinued but later resumed on a reduced basis.
1896	KSP temporarily stopped admitting prisoners due to widespread alarm over the spread of small pox in Kansas.
1911	KSP opened a "tinker shop" where visitors could purchase craft items including furniture made by inmates. The shop also housed a broom manufacturing operation.
1917	The Kansas Correctional Institute - Lansing for Women (KCIL) was established as a satellite unit of KSP. The name would become the Kansas Correctional Institute at Lansing in 1983.
1985	A medium-security unit was constructed adjacent to the original wall of the maximum-security compound. This complex is now designated as the Central Unit.
1987	The Osawatomie Correctional Facility was established in September as an 80-bed minimum-security facility on the grounds of the Osawatomie State Hospital. This facility would become a a satellite unit of Lansing Correctional Facility in May of 1990.
1988	The minimum- and medium-custody female inmates were transferred from the Kansas Correctional Institute at Lansing to the Topeka Correctional Facility in Topeka. The maximum-custody female inmates would be transferred to Topeka in 1995. The former KCIL site is now designated as the East Unit and is a minimum-custody facility for male inmates.
1990	The administration of KSP and the Kansas Correctional Institute at Lansing  were consolidated to form the Lansing Correctional Facility (LCF).
1991	LCF was awarded accreditation by the American Correctional Association.
1993	LCF became the oldest adult correctional facility to receive a perfect score in an American Correctional Association accreditation audit. LCF also duplicated its perfect score in a 1996 audit.
2009	LCF's satellite unit at Osawatomie was closed.

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Wardens
Don Langford Martin J. Sauers Dan Schnurr Johnnie Goddard Sam Cline Raymond N. Roberts L.E. Bruce Robert Harrison Michael A. Nelson		2019-present 2016-2019 2011-2016 2007-2011 2003-2007 1999-2003 1992-1999 1990-1992 1987-1990

ECF Timeline
1986	The Kansas Legislature approved construction of a correctional facility to house 96 minimum-custody youthful inmates convicted of non-violent crimes.
1987	Ellsworth is selected as the location to receive the new facility that will house 252 medium-custody inmates. The facility will be called the Ellsworth Correctional Work Facility (ECWF).
	Michael A. Nelson is named ECWF’s first Warden. (Additional administrative staff was added in 1988.)
1988	The word “Work” is removed from the title of the facility.
	The first inmates were transferred to ECF to help with construction of the facility.
	The Kansas Legislature approved an expansion of the original project to provide housing for 516 multi-custody inmates.
1990	Governor Mike Hayden and KDOC Secretary Steve Davies dedicated the facility at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 5.
1994	For two years, the facility housed parole condition violators, conditional release violators and post-release supervision violators KDOC wanted to house separately from the general prison population.
1995	The Department of Corrections began assessing offender fees for the following:  administrative fees for management of inmate trust fund accounts ($1.00 per inmate, per month); sick call ($2.00 per inmate-initiated visit); and urinalysis testing ($5.35 per confirmed positive test).
2000	Kansas Legislature approved construction of a 100-cell maximum security unit at ECF. Due to increasing numbers of medium custody inmates in the system, the unit is currently being utilized to house medium custody inmates and facility's segregation population.
2004	ECF’s Spiritual Life Center was constructed entirely with private donations to provide religious programs to inmates.
2006	Then-Senator Sam Brownback, contemplating a presidential run in 2008, spent the night at ECF and met with inmates on May 31.
2012	In the fall, a minimum-security unit (ECF East Unit) opened in the southeast corner of Ellsworth, housing 95 inmates, increasing the total operating capacity at the ECF Central and East Units to 915.

 

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The Larned State Correctional Facility (LSCF) was built in response to a 1989 federal court order which directed the KDOC to meet the long-term needs of mentally ill residents. Construction of the 150-bed facility began on the grounds of the Larned State Hospital (LSH) in 1991 and the facility was dedicated in December of that same year.  The facility received its first inmates on January 22, 1992. 

The name of the facility was officially changed on April 27, 2023 from Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility to the Larned State Correctional Facility.

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Kansas State Industrial Reformatory (KSIR)

In the mid 1880s, the State of Kansas recognized the need for a reformatory in Kansas. Modeled after the nation’s first reformatory established in Elmira, New York, the reformatory concept focused on reforming first-time male offenders between the ages of 16 and 30 through vocational training and academic education. The reformatory system also introduced the concept of indeterminate sentences whereby an offender could be sentenced to a range of years that then could be shortened if the offender exhibited good behavior while in prison.

Work on the Kansas State Industrial Reformatory (KSIR) began in 1885 when then-Governor John Martin authorized the purchase of land to build a reformatory. Following concerns that the state institutions were all located in the eastern part of the state, legislation was passed that new institutions had to be built in the western half of the state, areas west of Highway 81. Several Kansas communities vied for the reformatory including Belleville, McPherson, Newton, Wichita and Hutchinson.

The City of Hutchinson raised $25,000 and a group called the Hutchinson Sewing Circle contributed $1,000 for the purchase of 640 acres of land for the reformatory. The innocuous-sounding group was made up of a group of Hutchinson-area prostitutes who believed that the reformatory was a good concept and that youth should be separated from adults in the prison system.

On July 2, 1885 news reached the City of Hutchinson that it had been selected as the site for the new reformatory. A holiday was declared and the newspaper gives the account that throngs of people crowded Main Street, bells sounded and fireworks were shot off during a celebration that continued into the night.

Initiated with a $60,000 legislative appropriation, construction began on November 19, 1885. However, the project that encompassed building one cellblock that would house 100 men soon became beleaguered with delays that would hamper the project for the next decade. By March of 1887 all appropriated funds had been exhausted though an additional estimated $300,000 was still needed in order to complete the cellblock. At one point, the project came to a standstill for four years when the legislature failed to appropriate additional funds.

In 1894, Governor Merrill promised that if he were elected governor a reformatory would be completed in the next year. Governor Merrill was elected and held true to his promise. In August 1895 a 50-man brick cellhouse was completed and the first 30 inmates were transferred from the Kansas State Penitentiary (now Lansing Correctional Facility) to KSIR. Unfortunately, the first cellhouse was constructed of Hutchinson brick which was made from clay that was dug out of the banks of the Arkansas River. This clay contained so much sand that most buildings built of Hutchinson brick deteriorated rapidly.

The second cellhouse was completed in 1906. Both cellhouses were tied together by the rotunda which at that time was the administration building. By 1898, 185 inmates were housed at the reformatory. From 1895 to 1898, 240 inmates had been received and 270 paroles had been granted.

All inmates at KSIR went to school for two hours every night after a regular 8-hour work day. They also went to school all day on stormy days and on Saturdays. KSIR’s first vocational program was stonecutting. Many of the buildings built in Kansas around the turn of the century were built by men who were ex-inmates who had learned stonecutting at the reformatory.

Also of note in the reformatory’s history:

• In 1895, legislation passed that allowed both male and females to be housed at the reformatory. Between 1898 and 1900, two females were sent by court to KSIR. Both were later returned to the sentencing court and the law was changed in 1900.
• In 1900, the legislature approved the creation of a parole officer position and a transfer officer position that would pick up parole violators who were released from the reformatory.
• Also in 1900, a lower court ruled at the prompting of a lawsuit brought by an inmate that the Department of Corrections policy to transfer recalcitrant inmates to Lansing was unconstitutional. In 1901, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the Department of Corrections had the authority to transfer inmates as the agency deemed appropriate.
• In 1903, the reformatory had its first successful escape. On December 19, 1903 inmate Elmer Slider, who was a trustee at the director's residence, slipped off into the night and was never heard from again.
• Also in 1903, the reformatory adopted the policy of photographing all incoming inmates to aid in the apprehension of escapees and parole violators who had absconded from supervision.
• In 1907, the term “prison guards” was changed to correctional officers as staff were responsible for more than simply guarding inmates. Staff also were responsible for counseling and providing guidance to inmates.
• During World War I, the reformatory's population dropped from 430 to 326 by January of 1918. Most of the inmates who wanted to volunteer for the draft were given that option rather than serving their prison term. A report at the time indicated that most of the inmates who served in the war had received honorable discharges.
• During the years between 1916 and 1918, records indicate leaves were granted to inmates from 30 to 90 days in order to assist area farmers in bringing in the crops.

The reformatory’s name was changed in 1990 when the facility became the Hutchinson Correctional Facility.

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Overview | Visitor Information | History | Warden
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