Kansas corrections officials outline budget increases after renegotiated health contract; department warns capacity may be exceeded by 2028

Kansas Department of Corrections officials told the Legislative Budget Committee on an administration budget hearing that they negotiated a higher-cost health-care contract and are seeking multiple budget increases to cover medical and facility needs.

The increases stem in part from a renegotiated contract with Centurion, the department’s medical vendor, and from agency enhancement requests for deferred repairs, new construction and program funding. Keith Bradshaw, executive director of contracts and finance, said the contract extension has allowed the vendor to hire staff and that the department negotiated added performance guarantees. “Our Centurion has been able to hire 18 new behavioral health professionals,” Bradshaw said, adding that the department has also hired a psychiatrist and a PhD-level psychologist for El Dorado.

Bradshaw and fiscal staff said the net effect of the Centurion contract change and other items raises the KDOC health-care budget roughly 5.8 percent in the current fiscal year and about 5.7 percent in FY 2026. The department carved out pharmacy services from the vendor contract to capture additional savings through a 340B program and to reduce contract profit and overhead, Bradshaw said.

Why it matters: KDOC officials said population projections and health-care staffing both drive budget pressure. Bradshaw presented 10-year population projections that show the system meeting current capacity through 2027 but beginning to exceed total bed capacity in fiscal 2028; the female population is projected to exceed female capacity earlier, around fiscal 2026. If projections hold, officials said, the department will need capital or operational changes to avoid overcrowding.

Key budget items presented - Health-care contract: KDOC requested additional SGF to “fully fund the medical contract” after the vendor requested higher pay to align with market salaries and higher off-site care costs. The department said the negotiated terms include new performance metrics and penalties. The governor recommended partial funding for current-year and FY26 health-care costs. - Food service: KDOC requested additional SGF to cover a 4 percent per-meal cost increase; the governor recommended that item. - Deferred rehab and repair: KDOC requested $8.6 million SGF; the governor recommended funding for deferred rehab/repair projects in part. - Hutchinson Correctional Facility: KDOC requested $453 million SGF to replace the Hutchinson facility, describing major capital and standards shortfalls; the governor did not recommend that enhancement. - Lansing projects: requests included demolition and stabilization at the old Lansing maximum security compound, a proposed 25,000-square-foot warehouse, and funding to support a career campus; the governor recommended some Lansing projects, but recommended using the State Institutions Building Fund (SIBF) rather than SGF in at least one case.

What the LBC did: Legislative Budget Committee staff said the LBC deleted all agency enhancement requests in its preliminary action and removed several reappropriations included in the FY25 package. Fiscal staff also noted a series of reappropriations and late-session appropriations that were carried forward for program and capital work; the LBC lapsed or removed some of those reappropriations in its revisions.

Other details and context: KDOC and staff discussed the evidence-based juvenile programs fund and the juvenile justice oversight commission’s multi-year spending plan; officials said lapsing the evidence-based fund would force program terminations sooner than intended. Bradshaw said the department negotiated two additional performance guarantees with Centurion, raising the total number of monitored metrics to 14 and instituting penalties for monthly performance below the 90 percent threshold. KDOC also described plans to use 340B pharmacy purchasing to lower pharmaceutical costs.

The hearing included follow-up questions from committee members about a proposed mother-child “nursery” at Topeka Correctional Facility; Jennifer King, KDOC executive director of public affairs, said a working group is meeting and that planners are currently discussing a roughly 10-bed unit and related support space. King said the group has not finalized how long a child would remain with the mother.

Ending note: KDOC emphasized that population growth, rising health-care market wages and deferred capital needs are the main drivers of its FY26 request; lawmakers pressed staff about which items the governor supported and which the LBC deleted as they weigh final appropriations.