Topeka Correctional Facility

{{Short description|Prison in Kansas, U.S.}}

{{Infobox Prison

| prison_name = Topeka Correctional Facility

| image =

| location = 815 S.E. Rice Road
Topeka, Kansas

| coordinates =

| status = multi-security

| classification =

| capacity = 764 {{cite web | url=https://www.prisonpro.com/content/topeka-correctional-facility | title=Topeka Correctional Facility | Visiting Hours, Applications, Mail, Money }}

| opened = 1970s

| closed =

| managed_by = Kansas Department of Corrections

| director =Warden Dona Hook

}}

Topeka Correctional Facility is a Kansas Department of Corrections state prison for women located in Topeka, Kansas. Built in the 1970s, {{cite web|url=http://www.kshs.org/dart/units/view/214231|title=Records of the Kansas Department of Corrections - State Archives - Kansas Historical Society|website=Kshs.org|accessdate=9 August 2018}} in 1995 it became the only women's prison in the state.{{cite web|url=http://www.doc.ks.gov/news-room/news-releases/archive/2011-news-releases/warden-named-for-topeka-correctional-facility|title=Warden Named For Topeka Correctional Facility (August 2011) — Kansas Department of Corrections|website=Doc.ks.gov|accessdate=9 August 2018}} It administers a wide range of security levels, from maximum security through work-release.

The site was founded in 1905 as the Topeka Industrial Institute by the African American educator Edward S. Stephens, as a school on its own farmland, more or less modeled on the Tuskegee Institute. The school closed in 1955.{{cite web |url=http://blogs.cjonline.com/index.php?entry=7977 |title=CJOnline Blogs - King: Correctional facility has long history |accessdate=2012-06-22 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415092336/http://blogs.cjonline.com/index.php?entry=7977 |archivedate=2012-04-15 }}

The state would send a woman sentenced to death to this prison in the event that such happens.{{cite web|url=http://www.doc.ks.gov/newsroom/capital |title=Capital Punishment Information — Kansas Department of Corrections |website=Doc.ks.gov |access-date=2024-11-16}} The execution chamber for prisoners of all genders is at Lansing Correctional Facility.{{cite web|url=https://kansaspublicradio.org/statehouse-news/2019-02-20/kansas-lawmakers-to-consider-abolishing-death-penalty|title=Kansas Lawmakers to Consider Abolishing Death Penalty |publisher=Kansas Public Radio|date=2019-02-20|access-date=2024-11-16}}

== Conditions ==

Conditions in the facility have long been{{when|date=November 2024}} identified as extremely problematic.{{fact|date=November 2024}}

A series of investigative articles in The Topeka Capital-Journal in September 2009 revealed a "complex black market" of contraband, bribes, and a sex trade, practices that culminated in a prison employee impregnating an inmate.{{Cite web |url=http://cjonline.com/news/state/2009-10-03/womens_prison_sex_trade |title=Women's prison: Sex trade | CJOnline.com |access-date=2014-02-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140219054618/http://cjonline.com/news/state/2009-10-03/womens_prison_sex_trade |archive-date=2014-02-19 |url-status=dead }} In January 2010 two independent audits, one by the National Institute of Corrections and another by a committee of the state legislature, recommended two dozen operational changes, and the facility's administrator was reassigned elsewhere.{{Cite web |url=http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/06/3800442/fed-says-kansas-womens-prison.html |title=Abuse of inmates is 'rampant' at Kansas women's prison, federal report says - KansasCity.com |access-date=2014-02-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202113355/http://www.kansascity.com/2012/09/06/3800442/fed-says-kansas-womens-prison.html |archive-date=2014-02-02 |url-status=dead }}

The result of a 2011–2012 investigation by the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division found that the problems persisted. The Division's September 6, 2012 letter to Kansas Governor Sam Brownback concluded that "TCF fails to protect women prisoners from harm due to sexual abuse and misconduct from correctional staff and other prisoners in violation of their constitutional rights. TCF has a history of unabated officer-on-prisoner and prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse and misconduct."{{cite web|url=https://www.justice.gov/crt/about/spl/documents/topeka_findings_9-6-12.pdf|title= Letter : Re: Investigation of the Topeka Correctional Facility |website=Justice.gov|accessdate=9 August 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/September/12-crt-1084.html|title=Justice Department Releases Investigative Findings Showing Violation of Constitutional Rights in Kansas Correctional Facility|date=6 September 2012|website=Justice.gov|accessdate=9 August 2018}}