TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas' top prison official says protests outside the walls are helping to fuel unrest in state prisons by inspiring inmates to use mass demonstrations to air grievances and he doesn't see any other connection between a this week's uprising at one prison and disturbances earlier this summer at another.

Some legislators are skeptical and likely to press Corrections Secretary Joe Norwood for more information about Tuesday night's uprising at the Norton Correctional Facility in northwestern Kansas.

Norwood said in an Associated Press interview that the Norton disturbance appea...