Lansing Correctional Facility
 Prison from southwest |
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| 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 | 2489 |
| Opened | July, 1868 |
Lansing Correctional Facility (LCF) is a state prison operated by the Kansas Department of Corrections located in Lansing, Kansas in Leavenworth County. LCF, along with the Federal Bureau of Prison's United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth and 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.
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[edit] 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 and the doors opened in July 1868, and started housing Kansas inmates [felons], The prison housed felons from Oklahoma from 1889-1909.
The prison stopped admitting prisoners temporarily in the spring of 1896 as a result of the spread of smallpox in Kansas.
David R. McKune has been the warden at the facility since 1991.[1] [2]
[edit] Facilities
LCF consists of two units separated by level 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.
[edit] Capital punishment
Executions of state, federal, and military prisoners were performed by hanging at KSP until 1965.[2] 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.[3] No executions have been conducted since it was reinstated.
[edit] Programs
The InnerChange Freedom Initiative is offered at LCF.[4]
[edit] Notable prisoners
- Two of the most famous inmates were Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, who 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 Truman Capote's novel, In Cold Blood.
- Rev. Tom Bird, who was convicted in 1985 of killing his wife, Sandy, a case that was made into the CBS movie Murder Ordained.
- Alvin Francis "Creepy Karpis" Karpowicz met Fred Barker there 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 is 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, who, in the mid-1970s was convicted of the killings of four women and a 3-year-old child of one of the victims.
- Scott Roeder, convicted of murder for shooting Dr. George Tiller in May 2009.
[edit] Notes
- ^ State of Kansas. "Lansing Correctional Facility Overview". Archived from the original on 2006-12-06. http://web.archive.org/web/20061206000516/http://www.accesskansas.org/lcf/LCFNET/Public/Standard/ORGAN/orga.htm. Retrieved 2006-12-12.
- ^ a b State of Kansas. "Lansing Correctional Facility History". Archived from the original on 2006-12-06. http://web.archive.org/web/20061206000620/http://www.accesskansas.org/lcf/LCFNET/Public/Standard/History/hist.htm. Retrieved 2006-12-12.
- ^ Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty. "Kansas Law". http://www.kscadp.org/kansas_law.htm. Retrieved 2006-12-12.
- ^ "Kansas." InnerChange Freedom Initiative. Retrieved on November 24, 2010.
