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Kansas prison officials cite drug-soaked paper as reason for modifying newspaper subscriptions

KANSAS REFLECTOR

By: -September 18, 2025

TOPEKA — Drug-soaked paper was smuggled into at least one Kansas prison, according to state officials, who cited the ordeal as the reason for changing print newspaper subscription policies.

In late August, the Kansas Department of Corrections suddenly canceled subscriptions purchased by outside parties for those in state custody, confounding newspaper publishers across the state. Officials cited “dangerous contraband” and a need to preserve safety but did not go into specifics

David Thompson, a spokesman for the agency that oversees state prisons, disclosed the drug-soaked newsprint after a Kansas Reflector story published on Sept. 8.

“The impetus for this policy is an increase in drug-soaked material, such as books and newspapers, being transmitted to residents through the USPS,” he wrote in a Sept. 9 email.

When reached by phone Wednesday, he refused to confirm any criminal investigation into the alleged distribution and possession of drug-soaked newspapers.

In an earlier email, he wrote that the agency was “not able to provide additional information because doing so could jeopardize the safety of our employees, residents, and facilities, and negatively impact ongoing investigations. However, the challenge of drug-laced paper in correctional facilities is not isolated to Kansas. This is a challenge in both federal and state facilities across the country.”

In documented reports of drug-laced paper products mailed into prisons across the United States and abroad, officials detail criminal enterprises involving soaking or spraying paper, often in strips, in a liquid containing synthetic drugs.

In those reports, the drug-laced paper is often appended to books, pamphlets or legal mail. Legal mail is usually confidential and cannot be inspected by prison officials. Kansas Reflector could not identify any other recorded examples of newspapers used as a means for transporting drug-infused paper strips.

Once inside the prison, incarcerated individuals typically smoke the strips or eat them, creating serious health risks.

The corrections department implemented its new policy on Aug. 27, requiring incarcerated individuals to buy a print subscription themselves. Digital subscriptions were unaffected. Without notice to newspaper publishers, many were confused by the subscription cancellations that rolled into newsrooms following the change.

Emily Bradbury, the executive director of the Kansas Press Association, said concerns remain for Kansas newspaper publishers and media professionals. She has heard from more publishers across the state who have seen canceled subscriptions following the policy change.

Bradbury said it’s not an issue she wants “swept under the rug,” but she said she hopes for a solution once she can meet with corrections officials. She said that it is in the interest of publishers to have newspapers reaching the communities they cover.

“It’s also in our best interest as an industry to have an engaged and informed citizenry,” Bradbury said, “and that includes those living in correctional facilities.”

In response to the influx of drugs smuggled into prisons by mail, some corrections agencies, including Kansas’, have taken steps to digitize or screen mail before it reaches incarcerated individuals.

New Jersey prison officials have struggled to combat the flow of mail soaked or sprayed with K2, a synthetic cannabinoid also called spice, according to reporting from the New Jersey Monitor, a States Newsroom outlet. Now, mail is sent to a facility in Las Vegas for review before being photocopied, put in an envelope and delivered to the intended recipient, according to New Jersey Department of Corrections policy. But the method has sparked privacy concerns.

Privileged legal correspondence, books, magazines, publications with a spine and newspapers are sent directly from a publisher to New Jersey inmates, the policy said. The same is now required in Kansas.

All other mail, except privileged legal correspondence, delivered to Kansas prisons is inspected, withheld and photocopied before reaching designated incarcerated individuals, according to agency policy.

The Criminal Justice Testing and Evaluation, a research-based program within the National Institute of Justice, found in a 2021 report that digitized personal mail could be an effective way to stem the flow of drugs into prisons.

“While a digitized incoming inmate mail solution can eliminate vulnerabilities associated with traditional mail, it is not a panacea,” the report said. “The demand for drugs is not altered, and inmates and their conspirators will seek to exploit other contraband pathways (e.g., visitors, staff, drones, throw-overs).”

Family of Kansas City, Kansas, man killed in jail wants footage of his death publicly released

KCUR | By Peggy Lowe

Published September 24, 2025

KCUR-KC NEWS

Attorneys for the family of Charles Adair, 50, whose death was ruled a homicide, saw body camera footage of his death Tuesday. It showed Wyandotte County deputy sheriff Richard Fatherley kneeling on Adair’s back for a minute and a half, they said.

The family of a 50-year-old Kansas City, Kansas, man who was killed in the Wyandotte County jail called Tuesday night for law enforcement to publicly release the bodycam footage that shows the moments leading up to his death. They also want the case to be tried before a judge from outside of Wyandotte County.

Leading cries of “Let’s be fair for Charles Adair!,” Ben Crump, a national civil rights attorney, compared Adair’s death — which happened inside the jail — to that of George Floyd’s public killing at the hands of a white law enforcement officer.

Crump, who saw bodycam video on Tuesday, said it shows sheriff’s deputy Richard Fatherley kneeling on Adair’s back for a minute and a half after pulling Adair from a wheelchair. Fatherley then removed Adair's handcuffs and left him face down on a bed in his cell, according to Crump.

Adair, who was in the jail on misdemeanor traffic tickets, died July 5. His death has been ruled a homicide.

“A traffic violation should not equal a death sentence,” Crump said. “When you see that video you’re going to be as shocked as anybody who saw George Floyd’s video.”

During a press conference and prayer service at the Friendship Baptist Church in Kansas City, Missouri, Crump was joined by Adair’s mother, Ruby Smith, his sister, brother, other family members and local activists. They called for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation to release the video footage.

Nikki Richardson, a leader with criminal justice reform group Justice for Wyandotte, said the Wyandotte County Chief Judge should request a judge from another jurisdiction take over the case. She said the county court isn’t known for being fair to the Black community.

“The problem is in the house,” she said. “So we need someone from outside the county.”

Adair’s death was ruled a “mechanical asphyxiation” by the local coroner. It was due to a common police procedure called “prone restraint,” which was also used during the killing of Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, leading to national outcry. The autopsy report said hypertensive cardiovascular disease and hepatic cirrhosis due to chronic alcoholism also contributed to his death.

Last Thursday, District Attorney Mark Dupree announced second-degree murder charges against Fatherley, although Dupree also offered an alternative charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Fatherley was issued a summons to appear in court, rather than being arrested, because he cooperated with authorities and was not a flight risk, Dupree said.

Adair’s family said they are angry that Fatherley was released, and alleged he got preferential treatment because he’s in law enforcement.

Adair, who had diabetes, was being treated in the jail infirmary for a wound on his left leg, which was going to be amputated, according to Harry Daniels, another attorney for the family. He was a slight man who was overpowered by the much-larger Fatherley as 10 officers stood by, Daniels said.

“You’ve got a man in a wheelchair with one leg who ends up dead from account of asphyxiation,” Daniels said.

The coroner’s report also said Adair had multiple rib fractures, a sternal fracture and muscle hemorrhage, or bruising, on the top of his back and shoulders.

Adair’s sister, Erica, and brother, Anthony, described their brother as a funny, gentle soul who always hosted family get-togethers on Sundays to watch the Kansas City Chiefs. The family can’t believe he was combative with guards, as a Kansas Bureau of Investigation report said, because Adair was mild mannered and quiet, said Anthony Adair.

“He was a good person. He was not a street thug. He was not a pimp. He was not a drug dealer,” Anthony Adair said. “He was common. Common people, just like you and me.”



KDOC announces the Launch of Athena 2

After four years of hard work, KDOC announced it's successful launch of their new system, Athena 2. This upgrade not only modernizes their operations but also enhances security and boosts efficiency. The launch marks a significant advancement for their agency, thanks to the meticulous planning and hard work of their IT team.

For families: Please understand that switching to our new offender management system will impact residents and families regarding resident banking, electronic communications, and canteen purchasing among other issues.

Wyandotte DA: Sheriff’s deputy charged with murder of inmate won’t be arrested

By Sofi Zeman

The Kansas City Star

A local sheriff’s deputy who is facing charges of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter will be free from police custody for the next two months, Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree said during a Thursday afternoon news conference. He’s due in court in November but will not be arrested or booked into the county jail in the meantime.

Richard Fatherley, an employee of the Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office, is facing a maximum 33 years in prison if convicted for his role in the death of 50-year-old inmate Charles Adair. The district attorney’s office on Thursday charged Fatherley with Adair’s death, which was ruled a homicide. Adair died in the county jail in July while he was being held for failing to appear in court for traffic offense. The Star reported earlier this week that an autopsy report revealed one of the officers knelt on Adair’s back during an altercation. Investigators said Adair’s death was caused by a force that deterred his breathing. Contributing factors included a cardiovascular disease and hepatic cirrhosis connected to alcoholism.

Despite the fact that Fatherley is facing a murder charge, the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office has decided he will not be detained before appearing in court on Nov. 18, Dupree said. “He received that summons this afternoon from a law enforcement officer and that is common practice in this county when there are charges for officers,” Dupree said. “... He was in fact cooperative with the investigation with the Bureau of Investigation and I do not believe that it was a concern for this office on whether or not he would continue to cooperate.” Fatherley has worked for the sheriff’s department since May 9, 2024, and is not a certified law enforcement officer, Dupree said.

The Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Office has placed Fatherley on unpaid administrative leave until the case’s outcome is determined, a department spokesperson told The Star.

September, 2025

Kansas prisons reject newspaper subscriptions, blindsiding publishers and cutting off information

State officials say the policy change is meant to ensure safety, but confusion has already spread

By:

TOPEKA — Rob Morgan, owner and publisher of the Neodesha Derrick News in southeast Kansas, knew something wasn’t right when four subscriptions in a row were canceled.

All four, he noticed, were being delivered to correctional facilities.

“Four subscribers — that’s a big hit,” Morgan said. “I hate to say that.”

The Kansas Department of Corrections, which oversees all youth and adult detention facilities, changed without notice its department-wide newspaper subscription policy on Aug. 27, blindsiding newspaper publishers across Kansas.

Previously, families of incarcerated people could take out a newspaper subscription in a person’s name and have it delivered to a state facility. The agency says it made the change, forbidding newspaper subscriptions paid for by outside parties, for safety.

But for those serving time, a subscription can act as a tether to reality while inside a Kansas prison’s walls.

One person at the Hutchinson Correctional Facility had a subscription to the Neodesha paper through his parents, Morgan said.

“He looks forward to that because his children get in the paper from time to time,” he said.

Morgan is a self-described “little guy” and a one-man operation. The weekly paper stays away from politics and reports on community happenings for about 300 print subscribers and roughly 150 online subscribers in and around Wilson County.

Another man serving time had a subscription to the Neodesha Derrick News that was purchased by his mother and paid for through 2027. She has since died, and Morgan doesn’t quite know what to do. Two of the four canceled subscriptions have been rerouted to the families of people in prison, but Morgan said he has not received any requests from inside the Kansas prison system to restore access to the Neodesha Derrick News.

Emily Bradbury, executive director of the Kansas Press Association, alerted association members to the canceled newspaper subscriptions the day after the policy went into effect.

Following the change, this year’s subscriptions will not be honored, and incarcerated individuals must jump through hoops to regain access to credible local information, Bradbury said.

“Creating barriers to real information is not beneficial to the newspaper or to the inmate,” Bradbury said in an interview. “If the whole goal is to re-assimilate these inmates back into society when they’ve done their time, how are they going to know what’s going on?”

The new policy requires people serving time in state facilities to request a subscription on their own, undergo an approval process and pay for the subscription out of their commissary accounts.

David Thompson, a spokesman for the state corrections department, said it “takes the safety and well-being of its residents seriously.”

“The policy was updated primarily to enhance KDOC’s ability to protect residents and employees from dangerous contraband. This policy change applies to physical subscriptions only — digital access to newspapers remains unchanged,” Thompson said.

The policy change singled out newspapers. Other materials, including books and periodicals, are required to be ordered directly from a publisher.

Max Kautsch, the media hotline attorney for press association members, said the corrections department must show why the policy change and canceling existing subscriptions were necessary to protect residents.

“The real smoking gun here is that the publishers of the newspapers were never notified of the possibility that their subscribers would not be able to consume their publication,” he said. “The case law is very clear that publishers do have a due process right to know if that is going to happen.”

How community newspapers pose a threat to prison operations is unclear. However, Thompson said Monday that the new process has gone smoothly. Multiple newspaper subscriptions have been approved, and more are in the process. The only rejections thus far were related to payment issues or a publication’s inability to meet certain verification requirements, such as direct receipts, packing slips or labels allowing a newspaper issue to be tracked, Thompson said.

“Resident access to information is important to KDOC, and this policy is not designed to reject publications,” he said. “Rather, it aims to streamline ordering through approved vendors while maintaining safety standards.”

The suddenness of the decision bothered Bradbury, who has led the press association for eight years.

She wondered: “What could we have done to solve this instead of creating this burdensome, bureaucratic process for someone to go about getting a product that would educate them about what’s happening in their communities?”

Bradbury also said the press association was exploring all of its options in how to respond to the policy change.

Surrounding states have similar restrictions, but their policies don’t single out newspapers.

In Nebraska, printed materials, including magazines, newspapers and other periodicals, must be delivered directly from a publisher. Incarcerated individuals can submit orders for subscription materials in any month and aren’t subject to the typical four-order limit, according to Nebraska Department of Corrections policies.

In Oklahoma, the state cannot “implement a prohibition on any materials that inmates may receive by subscription, such as a magazine, newspaper, or other similar type of periodical,” according to Oklahoma Department of Corrections policy. Each issue delivered to an Oklahoma facility has to be reviewed to ensure it doesn’t violate the agency’s correspondence restrictions, which include materials containing instructions about drug or arms manufacturing, survival guide information, advocacy for overthrowing a government, sexually explicit materials, or encouraging criminal activity.

Thompson said the department is “fully engaged with residents to handle any issues that may arise.”

Bradbury, who didn’t receive an explanation from the state for why the policy changed, said she would like to see a return to the old policy. Kautsch said any fix must involve a content-neutral policy that serves a legitimate penological interest.

The Gift of Mobility: Kansas prisoners build wheelchairs for disabled people around the world

ELLSWORTH, Kan. (KAKE) - The Ellsworth Correctional Facility has a unique program for its residents to not only learn life-changing skills, but also to help those in need around the world with just a little bit of elbow grease.

EFC can house nearly 900 residents, and while each individual is there for a different reason, many of them find common ground and a higher purpose by building and refurbishing wheelchairs for those who need them most.

“We got a good group of guys. They're really dedicated to the program, they work hard, they really do, and that’s why we’re putting out so many chairs, and good quality chairs,” said Steven Larson, detail supervisor for the bike shop and Wheels for the World program at Ellsworth Correctional Facility.

Wesley Phillips is one of eight residents who spend their days refurbishing and rebuilding used wheelchairs. Many of them have no previous experience and have learned the job little by little, day by day.

“I’ve worked on cars a lot, but I’ve never touched a wheelchair before. There’s lots of similarities, I mean, you get to use the tools and that stuff, so the only real difference is it doesn’t have a motor on it,” explained Phillips.

Phillips joined the Wheels for the World program at Ellsworth earlier this year and he says he loves it. He says he’s gained a sense of purpose and community as a result of the program. Now he deconstructs, reworks, and rebuilds up to two wheelchairs every day.

“Makes the days go by faster, I mean, instead of sitting in your cell, you know what I mean,” said Phillips.

To take a wheelchair from scraps to serviceable is an extensive process, and it all begins with getting the right parts in the right hands.

Each piece necessary is hand-picked from a back stock and sanitized, then the rebuilding can truly begin.

“For real, like I told my family, I was like, you wouldn’t believe how many different things there are on wheelchairs to do. Every wheelchair is pretty much different,” said Phillips.

ECF has the ability to rebuild five different types of wheelchairs: standard, pediatric, specialty, transport, and bariatric chairs. And since the program came to the facility back in 2002, they’ve been able to refurbish and donate more than 12,000 wheelchairs across the globe.

Ellsworth Correctional Facility is one of 13 restoration centers across the country for Wheels for the World, a non-profit that sends wheelchairs around the globe to children and adults with disabilities that wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford one.