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Kansas

The Kansas Secretary of Corrections certifies state corrections officers and parole officers after a basic course of at least 200 hours, and corrections officers must receive 40 hours of in-service training a year. Sworn jail deputies are certified by the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training (KSCPOST), and no state agency sets or inspects county jail standards. Since 2023 the State has rewritten the county jail statutes, required police to report searches of parolees to the parole officer, required jails to hold people convicted of serious felonies without bond until sentencing, authorized sheriffs to hold people on ICE detainers, and made the Prisoner Review Board independent of the Department of Corrections. Many Kansas acts take effect on publication in the statute book, usually July 1; entries are dated by effective date.

Sources checked
Part of
Corrections Ledger

At a glance

Certifying body
Split system. The Secretary of Corrections (Kansas Department of Corrections, KDOC) certifies state corrections officers and parole officers; no one may receive a permanent appointment as either without the Secretary’s certificate for an approved basic course of at least 200 hours (K.S.A. 75-5212). KSCPOST certifies law enforcement officers, which by statute include the sheriff, undersheriff, and salaried deputies, and expressly excludes “any employee of the secretary of corrections other than a special agent” (K.S.A. 74-5602(g)). Jail staff fall under KSCPOST only if they are sworn deputies. KSCPOST is covered on the Kansas Officer Ledger page.
Statute
K.S.A. 75-5212 (training and certification of corrections and parole officers), 75-5247a (corrections officers’ law enforcement powers), and 75-5216 (parole officer duties). Kansas Law Enforcement Training Act, K.S.A. 74-5601 and following (KSCPOST). County jails: K.S.A. 19-1901 to 19-1936.
Minimum standards
The Secretary sets training and certification standards by rule. A permanent appointment requires the Secretary’s certificate for a basic course of at least 200 hours. The certificate lasts for the term of employment but must be re-earned after more than one year away from KDOC. The Secretary may certify officers certified in another state with equal or higher requirements, and may waive hours for prior training (75-5212(a) to (c)). Corrections officers “while acting within the scope of their duties” have the law enforcement powers needed for those duties anywhere in Kansas (75-5247a). Sworn jail deputies must hold a KSCPOST certificate (74-5616(a)).
Basic training
KDOC corrections officers and parole officers: a Secretary-approved basic course of “not less than 200 hours of instruction” (75-5212(b)). No statutory basic training standard for non-deputy county jailers was found. Sworn deputies complete KSCPOST basic law enforcement training.
In-service training
“Every corrections officer shall receive not less than 40 hours of in-service training annually” (75-5212(d)). KSCPOST-certified deputies must complete the annual continuing education required by K.S.A. 74-5607a; failing to do so is a ground for discipline (74-5616(b)(4)).
Decertification
KSCPOST may suspend, condition, or revoke the certificate of a law enforcement officer, including a sworn jail deputy, under the Kansas Administrative Procedure Act (K.S.A. 74-5616); grounds and KSCPOST’s published list of certification actions are on the Officer Ledger page. For KDOC officers, the statute sets no revocation procedure for the Secretary’s certificate; it lapses after more than a year away from KDOC (75-5212(b)).
Jail standards
No state agency that sets or inspects county jail standards was found in K.S.A. chapter 19, article 19, based on the section titles. Every county must provide jail services at county expense (19-1901, as amended in 2023). The sheriff keeps the jail and is “responsible for the manner in which the jail is kept,” must keep separate rooms for each sex (since 2023, biological sex at birth), and must supply food, drink, and medical care (19-1903). Deaths in city or county custody are investigated by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (19-1935).
Probation and parole officers
Parole officers are KDOC employees certified under the same 200-hour basic-course requirement as corrections officers (75-5212). They supervise parolees and people on postrelease supervision, give written conditions, keep records, and must use KDOC guidance on graduated interventions and incentives (75-5216). Parolees agree in writing to searches by a parole officer or KDOC enforcement, apprehension, and investigation officer at any time, with or without a warrant or cause, but not “arbitrary or capricious searches or searches for the sole purpose of harassment” (22-3717). Probation is supervised by court services officers (judicial branch) and community corrections officers; their training standards were not verified.
Restrictive housing
No statute limiting solitary confinement or restrictive housing was found in K.S.A. 75-52 (KDOC) or 19-19 (jails), based on the section titles. None of the corrections bills in the 2023 to 2026 KLRD Summaries of Legislation addressed it.
Corrections use of force
No corrections-specific use-of-force or pregnant-restraint statute was found. Corrections officers have law enforcement powers “as are necessary for the performance of such duties” (75-5247a). The general justification statutes are K.S.A. 21-5221 to 21-5231.

Changes, 2023 to 2026

  • Sheriffs and jail keepers may hold people on ICE detainers; civil immunity for good-faith 287(g) work

    Senate Substitute for HB 2372 (2026), new sections and amendments to K.S.A. 8-1404, 8-2010, 12-2904, 21-5904, 21-5922, 8-1102, and 75-6104Passed over the Governor’s veto April 9, 2026 (House 85-38, Senate 31-9); effective on publication in the statute book, July 1, 2026 (computed)

    “Any sheriff or keeper of the jail operating a jail pursuant to K.S.A. 19-1901” may detain a person on a facially sufficient ICE detainer request (form I-247A) and hold the person without criminal charges to transfer custody to ICE, or on a DHS form I-200 or ICE form I-205 warrant. The form is facially sufficient if it identifies the person, has box 1 (probable cause) or box 2 (transfer of custody) completed, and is signed by an ICE official, or if it is identified and signed and is supported by a warrant or other documentation of probable cause. The jail must tell the person why they are held, give them a copy of the form as soon as practicable, tell ICE the person is in custody, and complete and return the agency section of the form. The jail must release the person on a cancellation form, on a finding that the detainer is not facially sufficient, or on proof of U.S. citizenship or ICE confirmation of lawful presence. The act gives officers and agencies civil immunity in state actions for good-faith custody under a 287(g) agreement or detainer, requires the Attorney General to represent them in related federal suits and habeas hearings, and lets a sheriff sign a 287(g) agreement without county commission approval. It also creates the misdemeanor of unlawful approach of a first responder.

    For corrections staff: Jail staff holding someone on an I-247A must give the person a copy, notify ICE, and release the person on cancellation, insufficiency, or proof of citizenship.

    Senate Sub. for HB 2372, enrolled KLRD 2026 Summary of Legislation Actions report

  • People convicted of serious felonies are held in county jail without bond until sentencing

    SB 358 (2026), amending K.S.A. 22-2804Approved March 27, 2026; effective on publication in the statute book, July 1, 2026 (computed)

    A person convicted of an off-grid felony, a severity level 1 to 4 nondrug felony, or a severity level 1 or 2 drug felony who was released on bond before trial must have the bond “revoked immediately” and be “remanded and held without bond in the county jail until sentencing.” A person already in custody has bond modified so they stay held without bond.

    For corrections staff: Jails will hold more people convicted of serious felonies between verdict and sentencing, with no bond release.

    SB 358 enrolled KLRD 2026 Summary of Legislation

  • Prisoner Review Board made independent of KDOC

    SB 459 (2026), amending K.S.A. 22-3709 and related sectionsAct effective on Kansas Register publication; membership sections operative on and after July 1, 2026

    KLRD reports that the Prisoner Review Board, previously within KDOC with three members appointed by the Secretary of Corrections, becomes an independent five-member board subject to Senate confirmation. The Governor appoints three members (one with five years of law enforcement experience and one with victim-services experience) and the Attorney General two (one a prosecutor with at least five years’ experience), for four-year terms. Sitting members’ terms expired July 1, 2026, and interim members serve from that date. Parole hearings must be postponed if the victim was not properly notified of the public comment session.

    For corrections staff: Parole officers present release and violation matters to a board that no longer reports to the Secretary of Corrections.

    SB 459 enrolled KLRD 2026 Summary of Legislation

  • Police searches of parolees must be reported to the parole officer

    SB 414 (2024), L. 2024, ch. 96, sec. 10, amending K.S.A. 22-3717 (also amending 21-6607)Act effective on Kansas Register publication; sec. 10 operative on and after July 1, 2024 (statute history: July 1)

    Parolees and people on postrelease supervision remain subject to searches by a parole officer or KDOC enforcement, apprehension, and investigation officer at any time, but not arbitrary or capricious searches or searches only to harass, and to searches by any law enforcement officer on reasonable suspicion. KLRD describes as new the rule that “Any law enforcement officer who conducts such a search shall submit a written report to the appropriate parole officer no later than the close of the next business day after such search,” giving the facts, scope, and findings. Similar reporting already applied to probation and community corrections searches.

    For corrections staff: Parole officers receive a written report of any police search of their supervisees by the next business day.

    SB 414 enrolled K.S.A. 22-3717

  • County jail statutes rewritten: jail services, separation by biological sex, competency-wait reimbursement

    SB 228 (2023), L. 2023, ch. 83, amending K.S.A. 19-1901 and following and creating a County Competency Expense FundEffective on publication in the statute book; statute history shows July 1, 2023

    A county no longer has to keep a jail at the county seat; it must instead “provide jail services, at the expense of the county, for the safekeeping of prisoners lawfully committed” (19-1901). The sheriff must keep separate rooms “for each sex, female and male,” and “sex” now means “biological sex, either male or female, at birth” (19-1903). The Secretary for Aging and Disability Services must reimburse counties $100 a day, paid quarterly, for people held in jail awaiting competency examination, evaluation, or treatment.

    For corrections staff: Jails must house people by sex at birth, and counties can bill the State $100 a day for detainees awaiting competency services.

    SB 228 enrolled K.S.A. 19-1903

  • An agency head’s designee may seek court-ordered disease testing after an officer’s exposure

    HB 2015 (2023), amending K.S.A. 65-6008Effective on publication in the statute book, July 1, 2023 (computed)

    When a corrections officer, emergency services employee, law enforcement employee, or juvenile correctional facility staff member is exposed on duty to another person’s body fluids, “the head of the employing agency or entity, or the agency or entity head’s designee, may make application to a court” for an order requiring that person to be tested for infectious disease. KLRD describes the designee option as the change. The person must have refused voluntary testing unless exigent circumstances apply. A negative result triggers a retest after six months, and results go to the court, the employee, and the person tested.

    For corrections staff: After a spit, bite, or blood exposure, a supervisor designated by the warden or sheriff can apply for a testing order.

    HB 2015 enrolled KLRD 2023 Summary of Legislation

Enacted, not yet in force, pending, and bills that did not pass

  • Release documents for inmates (HB 2653, 2026): approved April 9, 2026; requires the Secretary of Corrections to help inmates obtain a birth certificate, Social Security card, and state ID within nine months before release and to give them work, training, and education records. It takes effect on publication in the Kansas Register; the publication date could not be confirmed, so this page does not say it is in force.

These bills were not enacted: HB 2008 (2025 to 2026, adding certain juvenile corrections officer positions to the KPERS correctional employees group; died in committee April 10, 2026) and HB 2681 (2026, a KDOC peer support fund; died in committee April 10, 2026). Actions report

Checked and unchanged

  • K.S.A. 74-5616 (KSCPOST discipline grounds): last amended in 2015, per the Officer Ledger page.
  • 2025 session: screened only through the KLRD 2025 Summary of Legislation, whose corrections entries concern appropriations, including funding for entry-level correctional officer pay differentials at Lansing Correctional Facility (SB 125).
  • Not verified: training and certification standards for court services officers and community corrections officers. The prior text of the statutes amended by SB 228 and HB 2015 (2023) was not compared directly; the changes described rely on the enrolled text and KLRD.

Bills in the legislature

Bills in the current session whose title concerns corrections officers, jails, probation and parole, and conditions of confinement, found automatically in LegiScan's copy of the legislature's records and refreshed daily (last on October 21, 2026). This list is not reviewed by an editor and is not a summary of the bills; each links to the legislature's own page, which controls. Bills that become law are added to the dated entries above once checked.

The law, section by section

Every section of the statutes and rules this page relies on that could be read from an official source, 46 in all, each linked to the official text. Headings are copied from the official tables of contents, checked October 21, 2026.

Kansas Statutes Annotated, Chapter 75, Article 52: Department of Corrections (corrections and parole officer sections)Statute · 3 sections

Official text current through Revisor of Statutes "2026 Kansas Statutes" (b2025_26 edition); read 2026-10-21. Headings from the Legislature's 2026 Kansas Statutes article index pages (kslegislature.gov), which give no article names; the index lists only current sections. Partial list: only the sections the tracker page cites. K.S.A. 75-5212, 75-5216, 75-5247a, official text

Chapter 75, Article 52

  • 75-5212 Training for corrections and parole officers.
  • 75-5216 Parole officers; duties; guidance developed by secretary of corrections.
  • 75-5247a Powers and duties of corrections officers.
Kansas Statutes Annotated, Chapter 19, Article 19: County JailsStatute · 24 sections

Official text current through Revisor of Statutes "2026 Kansas Statutes" (b2025_26 edition); read 2026-10-21. Headings from the Legislature's 2026 Kansas Statutes article index pages (kslegislature.gov), which give no article names; the index lists only current sections. K.S.A. 19-1901 to 19-1936, official text

Chapter 19, Article 19

  • 19-1901 Jail services.
  • 19-1903 Sheriff to keep jail; separation of each sex, definitions; meals and medical care for prisoners.
  • 19-1904 Calendar of all prisoners; information required to be kept.
  • 19-1905 Record of calendar for judges.
  • 19-1909 Cost of keeping civil prisoner.
  • 19-1910 Cost of keeping prisoner under criminal process; certain costs paid by the state; reimbursement from prisoner.
  • 19-1911 Process; preservation and records.
  • 19-1916 Prisoner sent to jail of nearest county with space and means to care for such prisoner.
  • 19-1917 Fugitives from other states; compensation for custody.
  • 19-1919 Treatment of prisoners; juvenile prisoners; visits of parents and friends.
  • 19-1923 Jails in certain areas other than county seat; cooperation by city.
  • 19-1924 Sale of old jail or jailer's residence; procedure; construction of new.
  • 19-1925 Appraisal of old jail or jailer's residence even though appraisement is in statute.
  • 19-1927 Abandoned jail and site; sale; conveyance to historical society, conditions; demolition or repurposing.
  • 19-1928 Deed for former jail or jail site.
  • 19-1928a Use of funds derived from sale of former jail or jail site.
  • 19-1929 Commitment of prisoners in counties not having a sufficient jail; contracts with other cities or counties.
  • 19-1930 County jails; U.S. prisoners, city prisoners and inmates on parole or conditional release; compensation for maintenance; medical examination before receiving or detaining, when; payments by inmates to defray maintenance cost; Sedgwick county, tax levy; failure of sheriff or keeper of the jail to perform duties; attorney visitation.
  • 19-1931 Jail facilities in certain counties; issuance of bonds; election; debt limitations inapplicable.
  • 19-1932 Authority of board to acquire jail facilities not limited; means of site acquisition.
  • 19-1933 Chase county jail; transfer of property from public building commission; duties of county commissioners.
  • 19-1934 Financing of Chase county jail; bonds.
  • 19-1935 Death of prisoner in custody of city or county; investigation by Kansas bureau of investigation.
  • 19-1936 Costs of keeping persons in custody of county jail awaiting examination, evaluation or treatment; reimbursement by secretary for aging and disability services; rate; procedure; county competency expense fund; claims against the state.
Kansas Statutes Annotated, Chapter 74, Article 56: Kansas Law Enforcement Training Act (KSCPOST)Statute · 19 sections

Official text current through Revisor of Statutes "2026 Kansas Statutes" (b2025_26 edition); read 2026-10-21. Headings from the Legislature's 2026 Kansas Statutes article index pages (kslegislature.gov), which give no article names; the index lists only current sections. Same article as the Officer Ledger library, re-read 2026-10-21; numbers absent from the index are not in the current article. K.S.A. 74-5601 to 74-5623, official text

Chapter 74, Article 56

  • 74-5601 Citation of act.
  • 74-5602 Definitions.
  • 74-5603 Law enforcement training center; establishment; location; purpose and function; director of police training; additional personnel; rules and regulations; director of the commission.
  • 74-5604a Extension of program; certification of schools; part-time officer training; pretraining evaluation; rejection of applicant.
  • 74-5605 Qualifications of applicant for certification; requirements; provisional certification.
  • 74-5606 Creation of commission; members.
  • 74-5607 Powers and duties of commission; compensation and expenses; meetings; rules and regulations, firearms; fingerprinting.
  • 74-5607a Certification for full-time and part-time law enforcement officers; annual training; provisional certificate.
  • 74-5608a Certification of persons completing training in other jurisdictions; waiver of courses.
  • 74-5609a Tuition; reimbursement of tuition.
  • 74-5611 Annual report to attorney general of persons attending training center.
  • 74-5611a Central registry; purpose; confidentiality and disclosure of records; required reports; immunity from liability.
  • 74-5616 Eligibility for appointment as officer; certification by commission required; conditioning, suspension, revocation or denial of certification, reprimand or censure; emergency proceedings; judicial review; investigations.
  • 74-5617 Requirement to hold permanent or provisional certification, penalties; violations of act.
  • 74-5619 Law enforcement training center fund abolished, moneys transferred to and liabilities imposed on the state general fund; Kansas commission on peace officers' standards and training fund.
  • 74-5620 Local law enforcement training reimbursement fund; expenditures.
  • 74-5621 Severability clause.
  • 74-5622 Certification; active status, time period, lapse, reinstatement; revocation, reinstatement.
  • 74-5623 Affiliation with the Kansas police and firemen's retirement system.

No regulations are listed: the page's At a glance list cites no Kansas Administrative Regulations for corrections.

USCLI's source monitor re-reads the 18 official sources cited on this page around the clock; 2 answered unchanged at their latest check. The oldest of those checks was on October 21, 2026.

Last updated October 21, 2026Source: United States Council for Law & InvestigationCite as: United States Council for Law & Investigation, “Kansas corrections law: Corrections Ledger,” uscli.org/corrections-tracker/kansas (last updated October 21, 2026). Text licensed CC BY 4.0.