State pays inmate $4,000 for alleged failures to protect him from several gangs

The Kansas State Finance Council approved a $4,000 settlement with an inmate who accused the state of failing to protect him from multiple prison gangs.

A prisoner acted as a confidential informant while serving time at the Lansing Correctional Facility in 2015. The Kansas Department of Correction was investigating allegations of corruption at the facility. But despite assurances that he would remain anonymous, the prisoner’s involvement was allegedly revealed by employees at the facility.

Court records for the case have been sealed, and The Capital-Journal is withholding his name out of concern for public safety.

After his involvement was made known, the inmate said he had a “green light,” where a prisoner is marked as a target, by members of the Gangster Disciples, Aryan Brotherhood, Bloods, Crips and adherents of Asatru — a Norse pagan revivalist group that is sometimes linked to white supremacist prison gangs.

The inmate was transferred out of state in 2017 but was since returned into the custody of the Kansas Department of Corrections. He stated in court documents that staff informed him that other prisoners were still planning to attack him, and he made that known when transferred from Crawford County jail to the El Dorado Correctional Facilities.

Despite the warnings, he was housed with an inmate that the prisoner claims was a threat. After about a month at El Dorado, the prisoner alleges he was given an option to transfer to either Ellsworth Correctional Facility or Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility.

He chose Larned but was again targeted for attack by games, court documents allege.

The prisoner said he was placed in restrictive housing and requested an out-of-state transfer. He alleged that jail staff are retaliating against him for his previous court case in 2017 seeking out-of-state transfer, including by “screaming down the hallway around other inmates that Plaintiff ‘was a CI/snitch.’”

In April 2023, he was being held in segregated housing and “being forced to accept cell mates from general population.”

“If he refuses to accept them, he received a disciplinary report for disobeying orders. Plaintiff alleges that keeping him in long term segregation prevents him from earning program credits, and from buying food and electronics,” court documents said.

The parties agreed to the $4,000 settlement on Feb. 26, which the State Finance Council approved on March 24. The State Finance Council is comprised of the governor and legislative leaders.

The Department of Corrections said the inmate has been transferred out of state.