The Kansas Department of Corrections announced Friday that in-person visitation will be suspended beginning Jan. 14 due to COVID-19.
KDOC Secretary Jeff Zmuda said staffing shortages have been an ongoing issue, in addition to more KDOC employees being unable to work due to COVID-19 related illness. The facility has also been seeing a rise in inmates contracting the virus.
“As we need to make every effort to mitigate further spread of the COVID-19 virus, and as our staffing levels are critical, we must take the step of again suspending in-person visitation at all juvenile and adult correctional facilities,” Zmuda said in a letter to residents and families.
As of Thursday, there were 78 active cases among residents and 117 active cases among staff. It’s not known how long the suspension will last.
