Good for Gov. Mark Parkinson for requesting an outside review of Kansas’ prison system. Inmates and staff at the Topeka Correctional Facility claim that as many as one-third of the prison’s 250 employees have been involved with an illegal black market that includes exchanging drugs for sex with female inmates, the Topeka Capital-Journal reported. Corrections Secretary Roger Werholtz disputes this, estimating that 2 percent of the department’s 3,000 employees statewide have engaged in such misconduct. Parkinson is acting responsibly in seeking an independent evaluation, which Werholtz also supports. As Parkinson said in a statement this week, “No one in our corrections system — whether it’s an employee or inmate — should ever be exploited or abused.”
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