by Stephen Koranda, Kansas News Service
A Kansas Department of Corrections spokesman said Thursday that officers at the El Dorado Correctional Facility are working to get a group of inmates to return to their cells.
Todd Fertig said in an email that a group of inmates refused to return to their cells Thursday morning.
“No incidents of violence have occurred, and there have been no injuries to offenders or staff,” Fertig said. “The facility is secure, and measures to return the offenders to the cell houses are ongoing.”
Robert Choromanski, with the Kansas Organization of State Employees, said members of the union told him the facility is on lockdown.
“It started out basically with the inmates taking over the gym,” he said. “The prison at El Dorado had to activate the special response team, basically like a SWAT, tactical team.”
Choromanski is concerned staffing shortages at the maximum-security facility could have played a part in the situation. The Wichita Eagle recently reported that prison guards at the El Dorado facility would begin working 12-hour shifts because of a lack of workers.
“The inmates can see that there are staffing shortages,” he said. “When they can see that the correctional staff is not prepared in numbers to maintain control of the facility, they are going to take advantage of the situation.”
Choromanski said there are more than 100 job vacancies at the El Dorado prison, which has an inmate capacity of 1,511. El Dorado is about 35 miles northeast of Wichita.
Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for Kansas Public Radio, a partner in the Kansas News Service. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to kcur.org.
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