Lansing Correctional Facility (LCF) is a state prison operated by the Kansas Department of Corrections located in Lansing, Kansas

Lansing, Kansas

Lansing is a city situated along the Missouri River in the eastern part of Leavenworth County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 11,265...

 in Leavenworth County. LCF, along with the Federal Bureau of Prison's United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth

United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth

The United States Penitentiary , Leavenworth was the largest maximum security federal prison in the United States from 1903 until 2005. It became a medium security prison in 2005.It is located in Leavenworth, Kansas...

 and the United States Army Corrections Command

United States Army Corrections Command

The United States Army Corrections Command exercises command and control and operational oversight for policy, programming, resourcing, and support of Army Corrections System facilities and TDA elements worldwide....

's United States Disciplinary Barracks

United States Disciplinary Barracks

The United States Disciplinary Barracks is a military prison located on Fort Leavenworth, a United States Army post in Kansas....

 and Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility

Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility

The Midwest Joint Regional Correctional Facility is a military prison at at 830 Sabalu Road, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas which opened in 2010.The prison on has a design specification of 512 beds with 43 in special housing and the rest in general housing and dormitory. The prison handles inmates...

 in Fort Leavenworth

Fort Leavenworth

Fort Leavenworth is a United States Army facility located in Leavenworth County, Kansas, immediately north of the city of Leavenworth in the upper northeast portion of the state. It is the oldest active United States Army post west of Washington, D.C. and has been in operation for over 180 years...

, are the four major prisons that give the Leavenworth area its reputation as a corrections center.

History

The facility was originally known as the Kansas State Penitentiary (KSP) and was built by prison labor in the 1860s. The name was changed to Lansing Correctional Facility in 1990. Construction of the cell houses was completed in 1867 and the doors opened in July 1868, and started housing Kansas inmates [felons], The prison housed felons from Oklahoma

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

 from 1889-1909.

The prison stopped admitting prisoners temporarily in the spring of 1896 as a result of the spread of smallpox

Smallpox

Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...

 in Kansas.

David R. McKune has been the warden at the facility since 1991.

Facilities

LCF consists of two units separated by level of security. The Central Unit includes an 11 acres (44,515.5 m²) maximum security facility and a 46 acres (186,155.6 m²) medium security facility. The East Unit includes an 85 acres (343,983.1 m²) minimum security facility.

Capital punishment

Executions of state, federal, and military prisoners were performed by hanging at KSP until 1965. When the death penalty was reinstated in Kansas in 1994, it was determined that executions for adult males would be performed at LCF by lethal injection.
No executions have been conducted since it was reinstated.

Notable prisoners

• Two of the most famous inmates were Perry Smith
  Perry Smith (murderer)
  Perry Edward Smith was one of two ex-convicts who murdered four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, United States on November 15, 1959, a crime made famous by Truman Capote in his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood.-Family and early life:Perry Edward Smith was born in Huntington,...
  
   and Richard Hickock
  Richard Hickock
  Richard "Dick" Eugene Hickock was one of two ex-convicts who murdered the four members of the Herbert Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas on November 15, 1959, a crime made famous by Truman Capote in his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood...
  
  , who were convicted for the 1959 murder of four members of the Herbert Clutter family and hanged in 1965. The story of the Clutter murders and the execution of Hickock and Smith drew national attention as a result of Truman Capote's
  Truman Capote
  Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...
  
   novel, In Cold Blood
  In Cold Blood (book)
  In Cold Blood is a 1966 book by American author Truman Capote detailing the brutal 1959 murders of Herbert Clutter, a successful farmer from Holcomb, Kansas, his wife and two of their four children. Two older daughters no longer lived at the farm and were not there at the time of the murders...
  
  .

• Rev. Tom Bird, who was convicted in 1985 of killing his wife, Sandy, a case that was made into the CBS movie Murder Ordained.

• Alvin Francis "Creepy Karpis" Karpowicz met Fred Barker there and later formed the Barker-Karpis Gang.

• Harvey Bailey
  Harvey Bailey
  Harvey John Bailey , called "The Dean of American Bank Robbers", had a long criminal career. One of the most successful bank robbers during the 1920s, walking off with over $1 million during that time, Bailey is almost forgotten today.- His career :Born in West Virginia, Bailey robbed his first...
  
  , cohort of Machine Gun Kelly
  Machine Gun Kelly
  George Kelley Barnes , better known as "Machine Gun Kelly", was an American gangster during the prohibition era. His nickname came from his favorite weapon, a Thompson submachine gun. His most famous crime was the kidnapping of oil tycoon & businessman Charles Urschel in July 1933 for which he,...
  
  

• John Edward Robinson (serial killer)
  John Edward Robinson (serial killer)
  John Edward Robinson is a convicted serial killer, con man, embezzler, kidnapper, and forger who was found guilty in 2003 of three murders and received the death sentence for two of them...
  
   convicted of the murders of 3 women in Kansas and 5 in Missouri some of whom were contacted through the internet.

• Serial killer Richard Grissom Jr, convicted of murdering 3 women in 1990 whose remains have yet to be found. He is also suspected of killing a woman in Wichita, Kansas and matched the psychological profile completed during that investigation by Wichita Police Chief Rick Stone.

• Serial killer Francis Donald Nemechek, who, in the mid-1970s was convicted of the killings of 4 women and a 3 year old child of one of the victims.

• Scott Roeder, convicted of murder for shooting Dr. George Tiller in May 2009.

External links

• Lansing Correctional Facility - Kansas Department of Corrections