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Tours to begin Friday at former state prison

The keys to the former Kansas State Penitentiary were passed from the Department of Corrections to the Lansing Historical Society Monday, signifying the official beginning of tours of cell houses in the maximum security penitentiary.Deputy Secretary of Corrections Gloria Geither handed the keys to Debra Bates-Lamborn, president of the Lansing Historical Society. She expressed her excitement that the project has come to fruition after a year of planning. She related that state Sen. Jeff Pittman and his wife, Holly Pittman, came to the museum and said, “We’ve got this idea. Let’s save the penitentiary from demolition and save the taxpayers $10 million.”Pittman cited the success of tours at the former Missouri State Penitentiary, which Bates-Lamborn said she and other historical society representatives visited. This has been the vision of the community for at least two decades, Pittman said, citing earlier plans for a regional prison museum. “This prison and the museum that goes with it tell the story of the whole area,” Pittman said. “We had Johnny Cash here, we had the executions, the only place this was happening. There were riots and even ghosts for the ghost lovers out here.” Prior to a brief tour, Pittman said there had previously been a “couple of false starts.” The Department of Corrections wanted to get rid of it, since it was costing money to maintain. Pittman said he talked to his colleagues and also the governor’s office, “and they were skeptical about it, but said, ‘We’re willing to give it a try if you can put a financial case together,’ so that’s what I did.”He said the Missouri prison tour officials were generous in sharing their financials, and after studying their information, Pittman approached the Lansing Historical Society, since its museum is on the prison property. A group of historical society members and volunteers, as well as Department of Corrections officials, former and current LCF staff and media representatives gathered for a brief tour after Monday’s ceremony, directed by former deputy warden Kyle Deere, who worked at the prison for 26 years. Bates-Lamborn asked Dave McKune, the longest serving warden at the prison, to use the keys to open the gate for the tour.Deere provided a historical look at the prison, which was established by the Kansas Territorial Legislature in 1859. The town was built around the prison, he noted, as it was there prior to Lansing’s founding. “In 1861 construction paused for the Civil War, and started again in 1864. The first prisoners were admitted in 1869 and until Dec. 12, 2020, it was a functioning maximum-security prison,” he said.He commended the staff of 400-500 for their work over the years. “They’re usually forgotten about. Prisons are something people usually talk about only when things are going wrong, but there have been so many good things that people don’t know about,” Deere said.Monday’s tour focused on C Cell House Segregation, where 95 prisoners were housed. “This was definitely the hardest cell house to work,” Deere noted. He said it was self-contained, to include individual segregation caged areas where inmates were allowed to go an hour a day, usually at night.Some of those there Monday didn’t need a tour. In fact, they’ll be sharing their own stories as they volunteer. Michael Green worked there 35 years and Phil White was there 37 years. Green described himself as second generation, which many of the staff were. He recalled forced cell moves he’d participated in when an inmate had to be extracted and moved into a different cell. He’d been part of the four-member team “geared up with a riot shield” that performed this function.Green and White reminisced about the days when this cell house, now with upper and lower areas, had been just one cell house with five floors.The tours that will begin at 9 a.m. Friday include not only this cell house, but also A, B and the Service Center, according to Bates-Lamborn. They will be led by volunteers, including former wardens, deputy wardens, correctional officers and a former inmate. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit the Lansing Historical Society and Museum website at Lansingkansashistory.com. Deere said more volunteers are also welcomed.

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