Longtime employee named to take over struggling Sedgwick County corrections
A longtime employee has been tapped to lead the Sedgwick County Department of Corrections, which has a staffing shortage that closed the juvenile residential facility and has been widely criticized in connection with the death of 17-year-old Cedric Lofton.
Steven Stonehouse will succeed Glenda Marten, who retired after the death of Lofton. The teen died in September after being held for more than 40 minutes in the prone position by corrections workers.
Stonehouse has been with the organization for 24 years, rising through the ranks from an intensive supervision officer to deputy chief and now director. Stonehouse will oversee roughly 225 employees, about 300 when fully staffed, in programs that offer alternatives to jail.
“The future is going to be a lot of work,” he said during Thursday’s announcement. “A challenge is good for everybody and I know the staff that we have and I know what they can accomplish and I look forward to doing that with them. I look forward to helping them make the changes that we need to serve kids, families and adult clients, and, ultimately, the community better. I believe in what we do.”
Despite the turmoil of the pandemic, staffing shortages and the handling of Lofton’s death, Stonehouse said there have been some positive steps in recent months. Pay increases approved by Sedgwick County commissioners will help with recruitment and retention, he said, noting one person rescinded their resignation the day the increases were approved.
He said the juvenile residential facility that closed April 29 is short 30 employees. He’s unsure when it will reopen. The facility provides an alternative to detention for juvenile offenders and emergency shelter for foster children in the Wichita area.
The department has also implemented some of the recommendations brought up by a task force that formed in response to Lofton’s death. The changes include 24-hour nursing at the juvenile facilities as well as expanded mental health services. Additionally, the department has done training on restraining people.
“Specifically when somebody is in the prone position that is not a long-term restraint, that is temporary,” he said.
They are also working on improving audio in the security system at the juvenile facilities. Videos released after Lofton’s death did not have any audio.
Stonehouse, citing an ongoing lawsuit, would not answer questions about whether any changes recommended during a 2016 state inspection were implemented in the juvenile facility where Lofton was killed. The report said the facility wasn’t able to handle children with mental health issues. It also said police took children there as punishment instead of taking them for the necessary mental health treatment.
A civil rights attorney who has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Lofton’s family said Lofton would be alive today if the recommendations had been implemented.
Lofton’s foster father called 911 seeking mental health treatment for Lofton before police instead took him to the juvenile intake and assessment center. A police officer changed answers on an intake form that would have required police to take Lofton for mental health treatment. A corrections worker knew the answers were changed and allowed it.
At a press conference on the day District Attorney Marc Bennett announced no criminal charges would be filed, Martens called Lofton’s death a tragedy but said “employees acted well within the policy and the requirements of that policy” when they restrained the teen.
Contributing: Matthew Kelly with The Eagle
