Kansas

Kansas’s prisons are run by the Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC). The agency refers to a person in its custody as a resident, identified by a KDOC registration number, and located through KASPER (the Kansas Adult Supervised Population Electronic Repository).

This section details all eight adult correctional facilities, which are all state-operated — Kansas does not use private prisons to hold its state residents. They are the El Dorado Correctional Facility (which houses the statewide men’s Reception and Diagnostic Unit), the Lansing Correctional Facility (the largest, rebuilt in 2020), the Hutchinson Correctional Facility, the Topeka Correctional Facility (the only women’s prison), the Larned State Correctional Facility (a men’s prison with a mental-health treatment mission, formerly the Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility), the Norton Correctional Facility, the Ellsworth Correctional Facility, and the Winfield Correctional Facility. Several smaller work-release and satellite units — including the Wichita Work Release Facility and units at Stockton, Ellsworth, and Oswego — operate under these eight and are covered on their parent facility’s page.

Where a newly sentenced person enters depends on sex. Men are received through the Reception and Diagnostic Unit at the El Dorado Correctional Facility, where they are assessed and classified before placement. Women are received at the Topeka Correctional Facility, the state’s only women’s prison.

Kansas keeps the death penalty in law but has not carried out an execution since 1965, and none is scheduled. Men under a death sentence are held at the El Dorado Correctional Facility; the Topeka Correctional Facility is the designated facility for any woman under a death sentence, though none is currently held.

A few features shape how families stay in touch. Incoming personal mail goes directly to the facility — Kansas does not use an off-site mail vendor — and only letters and photographs are accepted. Phone service and video visits run through ICSolutions, which also handles the statewide visit scheduling; electronic messaging is through GettingOut; and money is deposited through Access Corrections. Health care is provided under contract by VitalCore Health Strategies (effective July 1, 2026, replacing Centurion).

Use the guides below for the statewide rules, or go straight to a specific facility.