El Dorado Correctional Facility

El Dorado Correctional Facility

In 2002 the El Dorado Correctional Facility recently oversaw a proposal pushing for the construction of an additional 128 cells for maximum-security inmates or 256 additional cells for doubled-up medium security inmates, to help relieve the tension of Kansas' overcrowded state prison system. The maximum security facility at El Dorado was one of the first considerations for a target for expanding bedspace, but as of 2002, the entire state's prison population was soaring above the 9,000 mark, already maxing out the capacity of all state prison facilities combined; even worse, it is projected to reach 9,244 in 2007. Since 1991, no inmate has ever escaped from EDCF's maximum-security unit.

Formerly known as the Honor Camp, the North Unit at El Dorado operates a woodworking shop for inmates, who have helped supply much of Butler County's schools and libraries with hand-crafted oak cabinets, bookcases, and tables. The workshop itself is a well-ventilated, open-concept garage that lies amid lawns and greenhouses, while the quarters are a 102-bed dormitory unit.

To many inmates, the woodworking program, which operates on a full-time work schedule from 7am to 3pm, five days a week, is a welcome period of functional activity, and can help offenders get employment upon release. Some inmates are welders and carpenters by trade, while others learn for the first time.

Quality-made and inexpensive products have caught the attention of organizations across the state, which are now requesting more than the unit can produce. Some of their past clients have included the high school, 4-H, the football stadium, and the Augusta Senior Center.

There have been criticisms, however, that leaving convicted criminals to work with high school or college students in state parks unattended or unsupervised by correctional staff is potentially dangerous, considering that some of the minumum-security inmates have committed murder.

Inmate volunteers also helped build a 2,600 square-foot bird sanctuary in 1998, named the El Dorado Wildlife Rehabilitation Center's aviary, where injured birds can be treated before being released back into the wild. This progressive initiative by El Dorado Correctional Facility, the first of its kind, has gathered the attention of other correctional departments worldwide, including Autralia, who are continuously seeking to improve connections between minimum-risk offenders with their communities.

In 1994 El Dorado CF built a sweat lodge, a small worship-place for Native Americans, at the facility's North Unit. Later there was established a Native American Pow-Wow, a long-standing cultural celebration of song and dance. There is also a holistic, Native American-oriented approach to alcoholic treatment at the facility, dealing with the spiritual and emotional, as well as physical, aspects of abuse.

BTK serial killer Dennis Rader was admitted to EDFC in 2005 for the murders of 10 people. See his life in prison here.

Executions

Brothers Reginald and Jonathan Carr, who committed quarduple murders in..., were sentenced to die in 2002 by a Witchita court. They are currently housed in maximum security, and will likely remain there for at least 8 to 12 years, until they will be administered lethal injection in the gas chamber.

Four other recently admitted convicts are sentenced to die at EDCF, all for one count of intentional and premeditated first-degree murder accompanying rape and sodomy. The four are Stanley Elms, age 24, born Aug. 19, 1976, Michael Marsh, age 25, born Aug. 12, 1975, Gavin Scott, age 22, born March 4, 1978, and Gary Kleypas, aged 45, born Oct. 8, 1955. Since all condemned inmates sentenced to die are housed side-by-side along with the rest of the inmates, they will be eventually placed in the administrative segregation unit pending available space.

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