Wichita ? Inmates in Kansas and 12 other states who take part in work programs may have access to individuals’ personal information, including their Social Security numbers, according to a new report by the Office of Inspector General for the Social Security Administration.

Although some prisons have inmates sign statements saying they will not misuse or share the confidential information, the study recommended prisons toughen their rules.

In Kansas, two prison programs involve personal records, said Bill Miskell, spokesman for the Department of Corrections. One, at Lansing Correctional Facility, has inmates enter car accident report data for the Kansas Department of Transportation. A second, at Norton Correctional Facility, has inmates convert old county records to microfilm.

Miskell said authorities monitor both programs intensely, and said the inmates’ work environment is “very controlled.”

“We are not aware of a problem that has presented itself where an inmate has misused those Social Security numbers,” he said.

Rep. Dale Swenson, who serves on the Corrections and Juvenile Justice Oversight Committee, said no state bills were pending to limit the information access granted to inmates. While inmates might be searched for records or notes they had taken on Social Security numbers, he cautioned that prisoners could memorize those numbers.

“It’s kind of scary information,” Swenson, R-Wichita, said of the report.

The oversight committee has not been presented with any instances of identity theft by prisoners, said Sen. Phil Journey, R-Haysville, another committee member.

“My experience has been that the Department of Corrections is sensitive to these types of concerns, and they deal with them appropriately,” Journey said.

The report did not fault Kansas’ oversight procedures, but cited shortcomings from other states.

In Tennessee, for instance, inmates scan and enter in information from documents that usually contain Social Security numbers, such as traffic citations and insurance cancellation claims or vehicle titles and registration forms.

In Nebraska, prisoners gain access to Social Security numbers when they enter data from wage and medical claims forms.

In California, a prisoner caught with confidential records reportedly asked an inmate who had a history of identity theft to assist him in using the information, the report noted.

The facility was unnamed. But the prison guard’s union at the Pelican Bay State Prison has sued the state, stating inmates gained access to guards’ personal information.

In Kansas, Miskell said inmates in work-release programs in Wichita, Hutchinson and Topeka could also potentially gain access to such information.

He said the Department of Corrections determines the jobs inmates can fill based on their past offenses, so that a prisoner who had been convicted of fraud would not be assigned to a bookkeeping or banking position. He added that no type of job was considered strictly off-limits.