El Dorado Correctional Facility

El Dorado Correctional Facility
Map
Location1737 SE US Highway 54
El Dorado, Kansas
StatusOpen
Security classMaximum
Capacity1,511
Opened1991
Managed byKansas Department of Corrections
WardenTommy Williams

The El Dorado Correctional Facility (abbreviated EDCF) is a maximum security prison located east of the city of El Dorado in rural Prospect Township, Butler County, Kansas, United States.

EDCF is the location of the Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC) Reception and Diagnostic Unit (RDU), which processes every male inmate when they are received into custody. RDU helps determine the inmate's custody level, mental health classification, and educational program needs before he is assigned to a facility.

EDCF has two general population cellhouses and one medium security dormitory. EDCF is administratively linked to two minimum security units, formerly "honor camps", one in El Dorado and one in Toronto, Kansas. In 2009, the announcement was made that the state would be closing both minimum security units, due to budget constraints. As of 2015, medium and minimum security units in Oswego were administratively part of EDCF.

EDCF also houses male inmates sentenced to death by Kansas courts. There is no specific part of the prison that is the "death row". Inmates sentenced to death are housed in administrative segregation ("AdSeg"). The state currently has nine inmates on death row, all male, with eight of them at El Dorado.[1] Executions, however, take place at the Lansing Correctional Facility (LCF) in Lansing. The state has not had an execution since June 22, 1965, when spree killers George York and James Latham were hanged there.

History

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The El Dorado Correctional Facility was established in 1991. It was built in response to a federal mandate to ease over-crowding at the state's other two maximum security prisons.[2] Expansion in 2001 brought two new general population cellhouses. The facility is expected to expand in the future.

The state chose El Dorado to house most male condemned prisoners as they wanted different employees to supervise them for the majority of the time from the ones who would be implementing capital punishment.[3]

The first escape in facility history occurred on October 28, 2007. Inmates Jesse Bell and Steven Ford escaped with the assistance of former corrections officer, Amber Goff.[4] The three were apprehended in Grants, New Mexico, less than three days later. Bell and Ford were arrested in an apartment complex parking lot. Goff was found asleep in the driver's seat of a car parked in the driveway of a nearby vacant Grants home; a stolen handgun was found under a newspaper next to her.[5]

Circa 2017, the state has considered relocating executions from the Lansing Correctional Facility to the El Dorado Correctional Facility.[6]

Notable inmates

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Inmate Name Register Number Status Details
Dennis Rader 0083707[7] Serving 10 life sentences without parole.[8] Serial killer also known as the "BTK Killer" who murdered 10 people between 1974-1991.[9][10][11]
  • Reginald and Jonathan Carr – brothers were convicted of killing five people in a December 2000 crime spree dubbed the "Wichita Massacre" and sentenced to death. Their death sentences have been overturned and reinstated again.
  • Richard Grissom - a convicted serial killer who murdered three women in 1989. Their bodies have never been found.
  • Martin Priest – a convicted murderer and possible serial killer.
  • John Robinson – a convicted serial killer, con man, embezzler, kidnapper, and forger. He was found guilty in 2003 of three murders and was sentenced to death for two of them. He subsequently admitted responsibility for five additional homicides, and investigators fear that there might be other, undiscovered victims. Because he made contact with most of his post-1993 victims via online chat rooms, he is sometimes referred to as "the Internet's first serial killer".

Former Inmates

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Inmate Name Status Details
Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. Sentenced to death in 2015.[12][13] Died in May of 2021.[14] American white supremacist who committed the Overland Park Jewish Community Center shooting in 2014, in which he murdered three people.[15][16]

References

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  1. ^ "Capital Punishment Information — Kansas Department of Corrections". Doc.ks.gov. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
  2. ^ LibLime announces El Dorado Correctional Facility Selects Bibliovation
  3. ^ "Kansas Lawmakers to Consider Abolishing Death Penalty". Kansas Public Radio. 2019-02-20. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
  4. ^ Associated Press (April 5, 2008). "Lovesick prison guard who helped Kansas inmates escape says she feels used". Fox News. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  5. ^ CBSNEWS/CBS/AP (October 31, 2007). "Escaped inmates, ex-guard caught in N.M." cbsnews.com. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  6. ^ Shorman, Jonathan (2017-10-05). "Kansas considers moving execution site to El Dorado". The Wichita Eagle. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
  7. ^ "Rader, Dennis L." doc.ks.gov. Kansas Department of Corrections. November 12, 2014. Archived from the original on March 4, 2012. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  8. ^ https://www.npr.org/2005/08/18/4806125/btk-killer-sentenced-to-10-life-terms [bare URL]
  9. ^ Huffstutter, P. J.; Simon, Stephanie (2005-02-27). "Family Man Arrested in 10 Slayings". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
  10. ^ Davey, Monica (2005-03-06). "Suspect in 10 Kansas Murders Lived an Intensely Ordinary Life". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
  11. ^ "31 years of the BTK killer". NBC News. 2005-08-12. Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
  12. ^ "Jewish Site Killings: Death Sentence for White Supremacist Frazier Glenn Miller". NBC News. 2015-11-11. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
  13. ^ "Jurors recommend death sentence for white supremacist who killed three". The Guardian. 2015-09-08. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
  14. ^ "Man who fatally shot 3 at Kansas Jewish sites dies in prison". AP News. 2021-05-04. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
  15. ^ "Kansas Jewish Center Shooting Suspect Identified as Former KKK Leader". ABC News. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
  16. ^ "Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. Trial: White Supremacist in Kansas Shootings Takes Stand". NBC News. 2015-08-29. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
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37°48′15″N 96°48′59″W / 37.80417°N 96.81639°W / 37.80417; -96.81639

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