A 2022 investigation found serious flaws in the prison medical system. Those same problems persist years later, and the prison medical contractor is making more mistakes.
By BLAISE MESA
The Beacon Kansas
Darren Powell worries he could die in prison — and not because he’s serving a life sentence. He worries about dying due to a lapse in his medication.
Powell, a type 2 diabetic at the Norton prison, went to refill his medication but it wasn’t ready. Medical staff first told him it was because he didn’t request new medication. Then his wife was told a shipment was delayed. Finally, medical staff said he requested his medication too early.
“I am at a loss of what to do,” he said on the prison messaging system. “My blood sugars are off the wall, who knows what irreparable damage this has caused.”
He filed complaints with prison staff but nothing helpful was done.
“I’m scared to really eat because it raises my sugar,” he said. “This place is killing me, and I’ll be honest with you, I’m scared. I’m on the end of my sentence, and I’m questioning if I’ll see my family again.”
A 2022 investigation by KCUR and the Topeka Capital-Journal found major issues with medical contractor Centurion of Kansas. Inmates said the care was so bad the prison would rather let someone die before they offer help.
The Kansas Department of Corrections said in 2022 that Centurion, which has been the state’s contractor since July 2020, was improving and that the number of fines was dropping every month they were on the job.
That progress has disappeared, though. Inmates say and audits of the system show the contractor is now worse at its job than in 2022.
Centurion was fined almost 5,000 times between January 2021 and May 2022, totaling $900,000 in fines in 16 months. In 2025, Centurion was fined $1 million from just January to September.
The five months with the most fines for medical mistakes have all happened since November 2024.
In February 2025, the Lansing prison was compliant with nonemergency medical care just 1.85% of the time. In November 2024, the Topeka women’s prison was compliant with periodic health assessments just 2.63% of the time. In January 2025, the El Dorado Correctional Facility was compliant with behavioral health crisis follow-ups only 29.79% of the time.
“Compliant” doesn’t measure the quality of the care, said Jennifer King, a spokesperson for the Kansas Department of Corrections.
“Compliance is measured by selecting a random sample of incidents and reviewing them using the medical or administrative standards previously mentioned,” King said. “An incident must pass every element to be considered compliant.”
Powell originally messaged The Beacon in September. His condition has since improved, but he is still having issues.
He said his blood sugar is still too high, as is his blood pressure. Powell is struggling to get his blood pressure medication updated. Powell has been in prison since 2022 on drug charges and he said he will be released in February. He plans to go to the doctor.
Other inmates say prison medical treatment is slow — and that’s only if prison medical staff agree that you are sick or injured at all. Some diagnoses are just ignored. Treatment is also subpar whenever it does arrive.
Terry Bowen spoke with KCUR and the Capital-Journal in 2022. The 78-year-old has a host of medical issues. In 2022, he had arthritis, a grapefruit-sized hernia and wires poking his chest. The wires were used to tie his chest back together after a previous procedure, but they broke and are now pointing at his heart.
He was given Tylenol.
Bowen said medical care is still bad and only getting worse.
“Really all is about the same as it was then…,” Bowen said. “I don’t know. I’m getting to the point where I’m just tired.”
The prison system backed its contractor in 2022. This year, it said it strives to offer quality care and partners with KU Medical Center to audit the prison medical system.
“The process is exhaustive and designed to ensure all parties are held accountable,” said David Thompson, a spokesperson for the agency.
Thompson also said the medical contractor is required to reply to all grievances and there is an appeal process for people upset with their care. Inmates say the grievances are just ignored and appeals do nothing.
KDOC didn’t comment on Centurion’s performance because the prison medical contract expires by July, and there is an open bid for the next contract. Centurion could be awarded the next contract, but because there is a bid the agency can’t comment.
Centurion of Kansas also did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Rep. Tobias Schlingensiepen, a Topeka Democrat, said he has been hearing more complaints about prison medical care.
There are some problems for which Schlingensiepen said he doesn’t know who is at fault. Inmates say nobody takes their complaint seriously. That could be a KDOC staffing issue. It could also be Centurion ignoring the problem, Schlingensiepen said, but he just doesn’t know.
Schlingensiepen said the state needs to look at whether privatizing prison medical care makes sense, and Kansas should think more about whether specific people should even be locked up in the first place — like releasing old inmates when recidivism is unlikely.
“Funding is a problem … Health care (is) in general a problem,” he said. “So it’s not surprising that health care in prison should be a problem.”
Schlingensiepen said some lawmakers understand and empathize with the issue, but he doubts legislative leadership will even want to address this issue. That doesn’t surprise Wanda Bertram.
Bertram is a spokesperson for the Prison Policy Initiative, a group that looks at how prisons function.
She said her group has heard complaints about prison medical care from almost every state. Prison health care systems are set up for immediate emergencies, she said, like patching a wound when someone is stabbed. They aren’t great for ongoing treatment, like tweaking blood pressure medications so someone’s levels don’t jump.
In Kansas, the state does have a fine system that more harshly punishes its prison contractor the more mistakes it makes, the department of corrections said. Bertram hasn’t reviewed the Kansas contract and she isn’t an expert on contract law, so she isn’t sure if the language needs to be changed.
Instead, she said, prisons shouldn’t have to handle health care. Prison systems aren’t well funded and adding more money to help inmates has limited political support, Bertram said. So the problems persist.
“I have no love for prison medical contractors, and they are drowning in lawsuits for a reason,” she said. “They are also scapegoated in some conversations about correctional health care. They only have so much money to work with … Even if Kansas looked to change medical providers — it likely wouldn’t be radically changing the money it allocates to health care.”