KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The inmate uprising at Lansing Correctional Facility is over and the Kansas Department of Corrections is promising an investigation, but concerns about how the state prison is handling the spread of COVID-19 behind the walls remain.
"I'm shaking,” Patricia Rudder said. “I'm scared for him for real.”
Rudder hasn't been able to talk to her brother, who is an inmate at Lansing Correctional Facility, since the mayhem started Thursday with inmates overrunning cell block C.
"We don't know exactly what triggered the outbreak," Kansas Department of Corrections Secretary Jeff Zmuda said. “We have staff interviewing the population, debriefing the staff (and) should know in the future, but I don't know today.”
However, Rudder relayed what her brother has told her before in phone conversations — that inmates don't feel they're being protected enough from the COVID-19 outbreak.
At least 26 inmates and staff at Lansing Correctional Facility have tested positive for the virus. An inmate told 41 Action News by phone Thursday night that was part of what sparked the chaos.
Meanwhile, Rudder doesn't know if her brother has COVID-19, but she said he's sick and worried for his safety.
"He's in a different block, so I don't know why I wouldn't be able to talk to him," Rudder said.
Zmuda said the Department of Corrections has stepped up it response to the COVID-19 outbreak this week.
"Kansas Correctional Industries is producing surgical type masks made of cloth for use by our inmate population, and our staff began distributing those,” he said. “That started yesterday at our Lansing facility, and we'll progress through all of our correctional units.”
Rudder said such measures should have been implemented from the beginning.
"We've known for months," she said. "They could have gotten the masks. They could have gotten the gloves. They could've done anything. They could have educated themselves, so then they could educate and prevent."
