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AP: Prison officials consider more monitoring devices
Published 10/26/2009 in News
TOPEKA (AP) — Kansas prison officials are considering installing tracking equipment in corrections vehicles after allegations were raised about guards having sex with female inmates off prison grounds.
Bill Miskell, spokesman for the corrections department, said there are no cameras or GPS systems in the fleet cars to document movement of inmates and guards around Topeka.
The Topeka Capital-Journal has been chronicling illegal sexual relationships and contraband trafficking by employees and inmates at Kansas prisons, and it reported Sunday on a guard accused of sexual misconduct.
Two women paroled from the Topeka Correctional Facility claim a guard transported them in a state vehicle to remote sites near the prison to engage in sexual activity.
The accused officer's final day on staff was Oct. 17. The paper reported earlier about another guard who got an inmate pregnant in a storage building outside the wire fence at the Topeka prison and beyond the reach of security cameras.
Gov. Mark Parkinson responded to the scandal by seeking an independent, nationally regarded organization to evaluate prison policies and procedures to determine how best to circumvent ethical lapses.
The Legislature authorized an audit of the Topeka, Lansing and El Dorado correctional facilities to determine the scope of inappropriate conduct by employees and assess what reforms were necessary.
Rep. Virgil Peck, a Tyro Republican and chairman of the Legislative Post Audit Committee, said state officials must get a handle on a problem that likely goes beyond the two guards mentioned in the stories.
"I can't help but believe there are additional cases," he said. "There's potential for more."
Meanwhile, Corrections Secretary Roger Werholtz said the agency would cooperate with the outside review of the agency. He expressed confidence the department could demonstrate vigilance in working to prevent illicit relations among the staff and inmates.
"I don't know that you can create a fail-safe situation, but anytime we have an event like that, we're going to take a look at whether there are things we can do differently to prevent that sort of thing from happening," Werholtz said.
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Information from: The Topeka Capital-Journal, http://www.cjonline.com
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