DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
PAWNEE COUNTY
SOURCE 11
2017 has been a year of changes at state facility’s campus west of Larned Changes expected to help state’s recidivism rate
T
he Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility is currently undergoing conversion to become the Larned MediumSecurity Prison, a project to be completed later in 2017. In the spring of 2017, it was determined that Larned could no longer accommodate the number of mental health inmates it had been receiving, which prompted the conversion. It is part of a larger Kansas Department of Corrections reorganization project that also included the closing of the Larned Juvenile Correctional Facility on the same campus in March. The juvenile facility was closed because the number of young persons requiring incarceration has dropped significantly throughout the state.
In an effort to stem the recidivism rate in Kansas, the new medium security facility in Larned will accept inmates between the ages of 18 and 25, who have less than three years left on their sentences to serve. KDOC estimates that 300 inmates could be housed there. The prison will partner with Barton Community College in neighboring Barton County to provide educational and vocational training to these inmates, in order to provide them an opportunity to get their high school diplomas and job skills they can use upon release. Already, it has been working with the KDOC, with plans to expand the program. The Larned State Hospital, a mental health facility where the state’s sexual predator treatment program is housed, anticipates no
changes this year. It is the largest psychiatric facility in the state and serves two-thirds of the state. It is operated by the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, and has a capacity of 525 beds. Nearly 1,000 employees address the routine medical needs of patients, and access outside medical personnel as needed.
The hospital is also home to the unlikely but popular Sunflower Grill, where lunch specials are available every day, and pre-orders are said to sell out early. It’s open to the public, and located on the south end of the hospital. Look for the blue and gold sign that reads “Route 264Sunflower Grill.”
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