A Kansas legislative committee will meet this week to review a plan for building a new state prison in Lansing.
A joint committee on budget issues is scheduled to meet Wednesday afternoon for an update from Corrections Secretary Joe Norwood. House Majority Leader Don Hineman says he will wait until after the budget committee's meeting to decide whether he will support the project.
Final approval for the project must come from the governor and legislative leaders by early January.
The Department of Corrections wants to hire CoreCivic, a giant private-prison company, to build a prison in Lansing. It would hold 2,400 inmates and replace the state's oldest and largest prison there.
The state would run the prison but lease it from CoreCivic for 20 years before owning it.
