LANSING, Kan. — The sister of an inmate at Lansing Correctional Facility is concerned for her brother’s safety as cases of COVID-19 among staff and inmates continue to rise.
“They're all stacked on top of one another,” said Patricia Rudder. “They are not animals. They’re humans, and they have certain rights and their rights are kind of being taken away.”
Rudder told 41 Action News that her brother said corrections officers are not being transparent with the inmates.
"There’s a lot of inmates in there that don't have TVs,” she said. “They don't have money on their books to be able to call home, so they're going off of hearsay and third-party."
As of Tuesday, eight inmates and nine staff members at the prison were confirmed to have COVID-19.
The Kansas Department of Corrections sent a letter to families April 1 informing them of the measures being taken to identify residents who have come in contact with positive workers, which include isolating and monitoring them.
“I’m not trying to bash anyone when it comes to the correctional facility in any way, but the only thing I'm trying to get across is that I don't want to hear from you, I want to hear from my brother,” Rudder said.
RELATED: 3 Lansing Correctional Facility workers test positive for COVID-19
In a press conference on Tuesday, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said that any Lansing Correctional Facility staff members who tested positive have self-isolated.
“We believe that they're all at home, not needing to be in the hospital,” Kelly said.
Rudder said she is concerned that the roughly 2,000 inmates at the facility don’t know what’s happening with the coronavirus pandemic, all while having limited phone access.
"They’re not really educating them in anyway,” Rudder said. “They are coming in in the middle of the night and like taking inmates, my brother said, to the building that they built right behind it."
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly said that a spare building behind the facility will be used for quarantine.
As a response to COVID-19, the Kansas Department of Corrections said that a “modified operational schedule” has been implemented in an effort to reduce inmate movement. KDOC also is keeping necessary movement within the same groups from the same unit.
“Let’s not forget that there are still loved ones out here,” Rudder said. “These people still have family members. They have children and they have wives and they have sisters and brothers and mothers and dads.”
Kelly said she is working with KDOC to determine if it is possible to release some inmates early.
“We’re also going through the list of those who were close to release and looking to see which ones are those [who] have [what] we call ‘viable plans’ to have a place to live, that they have a job to do, that they have what it takes to be released successfully back into the community,” Kelly said. “We’re processing all of that and hopefully we’ll be able to move quite a few of those folks back into their communities.
Rudder’s brother is expected to be released in December.
41 Action News reached out to the Lansing Correctional Facility warden through his communications staffer for an interview, but did not hear back in time for broadcast.
