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The Penal Reform Act, enacted by the Legislature in 1973, consolidated all penal institutions in the State of Kansas under the direction of a cabinet-level Secretary of Corrections who is appointed by the Governor with the approval of the Senate. The Department of Corrections was created in order to replace the office of the Director of Penal Institutions. This act also mandated that the purpose of the agency is the proper care and rehabilitation of those offenders who are incarcerated. Steps have been taken to establish programs and develop administrative policies and procedures aimed at returning the incarcerated offender to society as a useful, productive and law-abiding citizen. This legislation was deemed essential in order to attain the agency's mutual goals of rehabilitation of the offender, so that he might become a productive and self-reliant citizen, as well as for the protection and safety of society. The functions and responsibilities of the Department of Corrections are clearly enumerated in the Kansas statutes. They include: to provide institutional care for those adult felons committed to the care and custody of the Secretary of Corrections; to provide supervision of individuals granted parole by the Kansas Adult Authority and of parolees and probationers received through interstate compacts; to inspect city and county jail facilities; to administer a community corrections grant program to assist communities in developing alternative correctional services for juveniles and non-violent felony offenders. The present penal system for which the Department of Corrections is responsible includes: Kansas State Penitentiary; Kansas State Industrial Reformatory; Kansas Reception and Diagnostic Center; Kansas Correctional Institution for Women; Kansas Correctional-Vocational Training Center; state industries; Toronto honor camp; and work release centers.

The Kansas State Reception and Diagnostic Center was established by legislation enacted in 1961 and assigned the primary function and purpose of providing a thorough and scientific examination and evaluation study of all male felony offenders sentenced by the courts of this state to the custody of the Secretary of Corrections, and developing programs of treatment so that each such offender may be assigned to a state correctional institution having the type of security (maximum, medium, minimum) and programs of education, employment or treatment designed to accomplish a maximum of rehabilitation for such offender during the offenders' confinement in a state penal institution. Subsequent legislation in 1974 also gave the Center the responsibility to provide pre-sentence evaluations. The center performs pre-sentence evaluations and competency evaluations on a limited number of cases as bedspace becomes available. Under the supervision of the director of the institution, each inmate received by the Center is evaluated on an individual basis to determine the cause of the criminality and to develop a program which may assist in correcting the criminal or deviant behavior and to plan a rehabilitation program. The clinical and correctional staff prepares a psychiatric diagnostic report on each individual with a medical-psycho-social conclusion, outlining the needs, assets and liabilities of the individuals examined. The evaluation provides a thorough understanding of the inmate's environmental influences as well as the resulting personality makeup and tries to find answers to why he acts in a self destructive and antisocial fashion. This diagnostic understanding is essential before further disposition is determined which may encompass rehabilitation or treatment programs. Clinical experience demonstrates that any attempt to rehabilitate a person before we understand him and his environment can only lead to negative results..., Thus the work of the Kansas State Reception and Diagnostic Center is an indispensable prerequisite to whatever recommendations are made for the rehabilitation of the offender.