Gov. Kelly seeks more money for Kansas prisons

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly is seeking $35 million to improve corrections officer salaries and inmate health care and to transfer inmates out of overcrowded state prisons.

Kelly on Tuesday submitted an amended budget proposal for the spending year that begins July 1 for lawmakers to consider as they returned Wednesday to the Statehouse for a brief wrap-up session.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Kelly wants to purchase contract bed space for male inmates to free state correctional officers for redeployment in the crowded prison system. In February, the governor declared an emergency at the state’s most crowded prison because of serious staffing shortages.

Kelly also wants to move 120 women at Topeka Correctional Facility to a state juvenile corrections complex and to broaden medical treatment for inmates with Hepatitis C.