Hearing set on proposed new Leavenworth prison

? Members of the public get a chance to hear more details this week on a proposal to build a second federal prison in Leavenworth.

A public meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Riverfront Community Center in the northeastern Kansas community.

Leavenworth is already home to the U.S. Penitentiary, which switched from maximum to medium security in 2005. The Federal Bureau of Prisons says the new facility would be built on the same grounds, with space for about 1,500 medium-security inmates plus 300 inmates at a minimum-security camp.

Federal officials say the prison would have an annual operating budget of roughly $40 million and provide about 300 fulltime jobs.