Three companies are seeking a contract with Kansas to build a new prison in Lansing to replace the state’s oldest and largest lockup there.

Corrections Secretary Joe Norwood told lawmakers Thursday of the three bidders. But he declined to name them, saying staff advised him he couldn’t for now.
But the Department of Administration disclosed their names to The Associated Press last month upon its request.

The bidders include Nashville-based CoreCivic and GEO Group of Boca Raton, Florida. Both run private prisons.

The third is Lansing Correctional Partners. Its headquarters was listed as Memphis but online searches found no website or business filings for Kansas or Tennessee.

Corrections officials contend a new prison will be safer and more efficient. Parts of the existing one date to the 1860s.