Kansas City, Mo. ? A Kansas City-area company is promoting a more efficient toilet for prisons.

Audie Murphy is research and development director of Metcraft Industries in Lee’s Summit, which has a patent pending for a high-efficiency prison toilet. It caused a buzz at trade shows in Long Beach, Calif., and Nashville, Tenn.

Metcraft has acquired another factory in Harrisonville in anticipation of spiked sales.

Murphy’s design of a “reseal cylinder” and other features allows the toilet to flush efficiently using only one gallon of water.

Many older prisons still have units that use three, four or even five gallons. The average inmate flushes about 30 times a day as inmates use them for ashtrays, disposal and as a cooler for drinks.

The American Correctional Association wants to write about the toilet in its newsletter. Metcraft has acquired another factory in Harrisonville in anticipation of spiked sales.

Prison toilets differ from regular toilets because the plumbing fixtures are behind the walls and flush handles are removed.

Industry experts and prison officials told the newspaper that retrofitting prisons with Murphy’s new high-efficiency toilet could mean huge savings in monthly water bills, which are paid by taxpayers.

“I’ve seen it — it works,” said Steve Connaughton, a product manager for water technologies at Sloan Valve Co., a Chicago-based company that is the largest maker of toilet valves. “Prisons must start saving energy, and water is a big part of the energy package,” he said.

Murphy grew up in Independence and attended Metropolitan Community College-Longview.

“My dad will tell you there’s still a lot of torn-up stuff at the house,” said Murphy, 48, who has worked at Metcraft all his adult life.

Metcraft’s 25 workers make stainless-steel toilets, urinals, shower heads and lavatories for prisons, jails and highway rest stops.

Metcraft already has about 75,000 toilets in use.