A new high security prison in Canon City is preparing to open its doors to problem prisoners and officials say the new facility is long overdue. The Centennial Correctional Facility is located in east Canon City. The facility was approved by legislature in 2002, but several lawsuits and budget cuts delayed construction until 2007. Reported in the Colorado Connection.

Wednesday the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) held a dedication ceremony for the new facility. For prisoners the Centennial Correctional Facility is the end of the line.

“This is a 24 hour a day lock down. We have a five level security classifications system. This is level five which is the highest level,” said Ari Zavaras, Executive Director of the DOC.

Officials say prisoners who are problems at other facilities will end up in single cells at the Centennial Correctional Facility.

“Individuals that come into this setting do what we call in the system earn their way into this facility. It’s by their behavior as opposed to what their crime was,” said Zavaras.

The facility has 948 high security beds in three towers. But because they are so expensive to run, only one tower will open in September.

Zavaras says to operate one tower costs a little over $10 million. Each tower holds 316 high security beds and the one that is opening will be filled to capacity almost immediately.

“We’ve had a backup in our high security beds so we’ll be able to get some of those individuals who are backed into facilities right now into this facility and start the programming,” said Zavaras.

Attorney General John Suthers says the need for this facility goes back to 2001. “Make no mistake about it, anyone who knows this business knows that adequate high security beds are absolutely essential to the proper and safe functioning of an effective Department of Corrections,” said Suthers.

Officials say the goal of the Centennial Correctional Facility is to teach problem prisoners better behavior and prepare them to return to society as a contributing member.

The Centennial Correctional Facility will officially open on September 1.They will accept 15 prisoners a day until capacity is reached.

jchev Colorado, Jail and Prison Construction

City leaders rolled out the welcome wagon today for officials from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, who are considering buying a shuttered local state prison to house federal inmates. The Standish Max Correctional Facility, which the state of Michigan closed last October in a budget-cutting move, was once considered as a home for prisoners currently housed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Those plans were dropped, but federal official are considering using the former state facility as a standard federal prison. News and additional photos in the Detroit Free Press.

About 350 people worked at the facility when the state ran it, though it’s unclear how many people would be needed to operate it as a federal prison.

City leaders, state prison officials and Congressman Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, led federal officials on a tour of the facility this morning, then drove them into town for a private lunch at a local golf club.

Along the route into town, a dozen or so freshly printed campaign-style yard signs read “Federal Bureau of Prisons — Welcome to Standish.”

“It was great to see the signs out there,” Stupak told reporters this afternoon outside the prison’s administration building. “It’s very early in the process, but right now everything looks very positive. I’m optimistic it will happen.”

Stupak noted that no recommendation had yet been made. Federal prison officials plan to meet privately with property owners surrounding the prison Wednesday to discuss what comes next.

Patricia Caruso, director of the Michigan Department of Corrections, said she hopes the federal officials will pursue the next step, which would be an environmental assessment of the property. She said the state’s inmate population has dropped from more than 50,000 to about 44,000, and the property is no longer needed. She said she can’t see any way the state would reopen the facility.

“We have no intention of doing that,” she said.

Some former workers at the facility protested outside the prison during the day, arguing that the state will need the facility again and that selling it now would be foolish.

“Is the sale of this going to balance Michigan’s budget?” asked Paul Piche, 53, of Omer, who has worked in state prisons for 25 years.

When the prison closed last year, Piche was transferred to another state prison in St. Louis, Mich., about 90 minutes away. He and 15 coworkers now ride to work together in a van, spending three hours a day on the road. Others in town are worried about the possible sale, too.

“My contention is that the prison will open sooner as a state facility than as a federal one,” said Dave Munson, a local bar owner.

He said he’d like to wait until a new governor comes in and reviews corrections policy before selling the property. But city leaders are convinced the facility’s days as a state prison are done.

“The state’s not going to open that back up,” said Clark Sanford, a longtime Standish city councilman who backs the plan. “What do you want to do, leave it empty?”

Standish city leaders say the entire community stands to benefit if the prison is reopened as a federal facility. Workers would spend money in the local community and the federal government would start paying for water and sewer at the prison. Local residents were socked with a 40% increase in water and sewer bills when the prison, the system’s largest user, closed and usage dropped off dramatically.

“If it happens, this will be a very positive thing,” said Mayor Mark Winslow.

jchev Federal Systems, Jail and Prison Construction, Michigan

The new death row complex at San Quentin State Prison will feature 768 cells, 1,152 beds, six guard towers, a hospital and two fences, one of them electrified. That is, of course, if the complex is built at all.

The state this week began soliciting bids from contractors to build the $356 million expansion to California’s only holding facility for prisoners condemned to death. Story from the Mercury News.

In announcing his call for bidders Thursday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the first year of work on the project would be paid for through a loan from the state’s general fund – a loan that would be paid for next spring, should state Treasurer Bill Lockyer agree to issue bonds to cover the overall cost of the project.

Lockyer has been unwilling to issue those bonds so far because of a lawsuit filed against Schwarzenegger by members of the state Legislature. Those legislators, including San Rafael Assemblyman Jared Huffman, say the governor acted outside the law when he vetoed a bill that would have required the state to answer several questions about the new death row complex before approving the funds to build it.

“What the governor is really trying to do is get the state a little bit pregnant with this terrible project, so the next governor has no choice but to finish it,” Huffman said. “The fact that the governor is thumbing his nose at pending litigation over the legality of his ability to pursue this project is something to be considered. We hope the governor will come to his senses.”

Spokesmen for the governor have argued that Schwarzenegger was well within his rights both to veto the Huffman bill and to launch the death row construction project Thursday, lawsuit or no lawsuit.

“We believe it’s a clear-cut issue,” spokesman H.D. Palmer said Wednesday. “The California Supreme Court has affirmed that the executive branch has the authority to reduce items of appropriation in the manner that the governor did last year.”

The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is seeking bids on two phases of the project. The first, due at 2 p.m. Oct. 5, would include demolishing existing buildings and installing utilities.

The second, due Aug. 30, 2011, would include installation of an emergency generator, improvements to the Interstate 580 off-ramp, and construction of three stacked housing units and six guard towers. Each housing unit would include 180 cells, showers, counseling rooms and a kitchen.

Work on the first phase of the project would begin Nov. 5. The entire project is scheduled for completion on June 25, 2013. A spokesman for the Department of Corrections said she had no estimate as to the number of bids the department expects to receive.

“We’ve never built a condemned inmate complex before,” spokeswoman Terry Thornton said.

The Department of Corrections estimates construction of the new complex would employ about 6,000 workers, while the complex itself would employ 570 to 648 people upon completion.

jchev California, Death Penalty, Jail and Prison Construction

Officials in Franklin County say the state has yet to pay some of its increased costs because of a dramatic expansion of the Coyote Ridge Corrections Center in Connell. Adding more than a 1,000 inmates to the state facility has driven up the county’s costs for its court system, among other things. Reported in the Seattle PI.

Coyote Ridge started as a 600-bed minimum security prison but now has nearly 2,000 inmates. By the end of the year, it’s expected to reach its capacity of more than 2,600 inmates.

Franklin County Prosecutor Steve Lowe compared it to adding another city, and said it’s important for the state, not just county taxpayers, to share in costs.

“The reality is Franklin County has gotten nothing,” Lowe said.

Despite the state budget deficit, Franklin County will ask the Legislature in the next session for impact fees, county commissioner Bob Koch said.

A joint study by the county and Connell in 2008 estimated the county’s one-time costs at $2.5 million, including staff and equipment for departments dealing with criminal justice, Koch said. There are also extra costs to local schools and hospitals.

But no money made it through the Legislature, officials said.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Rowlanda Cawthon said only the Legislature has the power to appropriate such money.

County officials don’t yet have a firm estimate of additional costs from the prison expansion. But they include an increase in court filings and paperwork. Prisoners have filed lawsuits against the state and prison employees, and those must be handled in Franklin County courts.

Lowe said there has also been an increase in criminal cases from the prison, which are investigated by Connell police. When Coyote Ridge was a minimum-security prison, his office received one to three prison-related criminal cases a year, usually escape or drug cases.

Lowe said his office has 10 cases on hold from Coyote Ridge, most of which are assaults.

County Clerk Michael Killian said letters from inmates come into his office daily, and his staff has to respond to inquiries for legal help and forms. Killian estimated the workload related to inmates amounts to a full day for a clerk every week.

jchev Economic Issues, Jail and Prison Construction, WA Franklin County

Corrections officials in Montana opened a new $12.3 million revocation-sanction facility designed to reduce unnecessary prison admissions by diverting low-risk offenders away from state prisons.

The new 40,000-square-foot Sanction, Treatment, Assessment, Revocation and Transition facility, which cost more than $10.3 million to construct, provides 142 beds for adult offenders. Designed by San Francisco-based firm KMD Architects, the facility also incorporates an additional 10 special-needs beds designated for mentally ill offenders.

Butte-based Community, Counseling and Correctional Services Inc. won the contract to operate the new START facility for the state Department of Corrections after successfully managing a 3-year pilot program launched in December 2005. The program operated out of an existing facility on the campus of the state hospital in Warm Springs for the duration of its pilot phase.

The START program provides short-term, secure housing for offenders who violate the conditions of their community placement and who would otherwise be automatically subject to increased sanctions, such as incarceration.

Current outcome measures of the intermediate-sanction initiative indicate that more than 80 percent of offenders placed in START are successfully diverted from prison. During the first two years of the pilot phase, prison admissions in Montana dropped 12.5 percent, according to official figures.

Based on short-sharp-shock modalities, the program uses a taste of incarceration, coupled with personal needs assessment and tailored treatment, to get offenders back on track.

The START program relies on a comprehensive range of assessment tools that help staff develop an intensive, tailored treatment/programming regimen designed to return offenders to their original supervision status in the community without resorting to long-term prison incarceration.

Licensed addiction counselors provide chemical dependency treatment.

State authorities implemented the alternatives-to-incarceration initiative with the primary objective of reducing the number of unnecessary admissions to the overburdened state prison system. Diverting low-risk offenders to treatment and program-intensive community based facilities is less costly than prison placement on a per-bed basis, officials say.

Handling low-risk offenders by using intermediate sanctions that fall short of incarceration also serves to reduce prison overcrowding and reserves costly and finite bed space for higher-risk offenders, officials say.

jchev Assessments and Classification, Jail and Prison Construction, Montana

State government has promised to chip in $26 million for a new jail in Calaveras County and $80 million for a jail expansion in San Joaquin County. So what could go wrong?

Well, for one thing, state budget cuts to the prison system.

The state plans to come up with money for projects authorized under AB900, a law passed in 2008, by selling lease revenue bonds. Unlike traditional lease revenue bonds where the property financed is a money maker, the “lease” in this case involves a rent payment of tax dollars from one state agency to another.

The State Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is supposed to pay rent to the State Public Works Board for use of the jail facilities. If it doesn’t, the Public Works Board is obligated to find someone else to pay the rent. In the event of a state default on particular bonds, the county that built the jail would be given the first opportunity to pay the rent. If the county government couldn’t or wouldn’t pay it, then it would face the prospect of having a building in the middle of its law enforcement complex leased to some other entity, possibly a private company in the prison business.

The lease-revenue arrangement, and its potential pitfalls, have come as news to some county officials.

“I thought these were general obligation bonds of the state,” Calaveras County Supervisor Tom Tryon said during a July 27 meeting of the Board of Supervisors. “If they come to foreclose on the jail, what happens to our $32 million?” Tryon asked, referring to the money from a local bond measure county voters approved in 2007.

The local money in Calaveras is going to an 80-bed jail dormitory and to a Sheriff’s Department administrative building next to the planned main 160-bed jail building. A specially carved parcel that includes only the main 160-bed jail serves as security for the lease-revenue bonds. So the county would keep the administration building and the dormitory even in the event of a default.

Calaveras County Counsel Jim Jones said county officials were concerned enough about the possibility of a state default jeopardizing the main jail that county officials tried to negotiate changes in the language of the jail funding contract with the state.

He said state officials were unwilling to make the changes because they believe the lease-revenue arrangement is necessary to attract investors willing to buy the bonds.

There are significant differences between general obligation bonds and lease-revenue bonds. General obligation bonds in California must get a two-thirds approval from voters. They cost the least in interest because they are backed by the full faith of the state government.

Lease-revenue bonds were traditionally used to finance things such as electric utility plants, water treatment plants or toll bridges that would generate the money needed to pay the debt. By using lease-revenue financing, state officials avoid the need to ask voter approval but will have to pay higher interest rates, and therefore more tax dollars, for the state’s $7.4 billion in borrowing for AB900. That program is building both prison and jail capacity around the state.

Another danger to the jail financing is that California’s battered credit rating and budget deadlock could make it difficult to sell AB900 bonds.

Yet state officials remain confident that they will be able to both sell the bonds and pay them off.

“You can’t say with any certainty there is no risk,” said Robert Takeshita, deputy director of the California Corrections Standards Authority. “But then you have to look at the history. There has never been a default in the state of California.”

And county officials are for the most part resigned to the fact that they need the state funding if they are to build a bigger jail.

“We do have concerns, and we hope it doesn’t happen,” San Joaquin County Director of Facilities Management Gabe Karam said of the risk the state could default on the bonds. “But there is too much at stake here. It is $80 million from the state to build the jail here. How can you say no to that?”

Al Segalla, president of the Calaveras County Taxpayers Association, said that if the general public hasn’t objected so far to the funding mechanism, its high costs, and its risks, that’s because few people understand it.

“This multilayered leasing is really confusing to the public and to me. It is almost like a fraud or a scheme to avoid public accountability,” Segalla said.

Calaveras County has finished its design for the jail and is scheduled to begin construction late this year, finishing the job by December 2012.

San Joaquin County is going slower, Karam said, and doesn’t anticipate starting construction on its expansion until mid-2012. By then, he said, local officials may know more about whether investors are willing to buy AB900 bonds and whether California’s elected leaders can stabilize state finances.

“We have two years to know more about the state of the economy in California,” Karam said.

jchev Budgets, California, Jail and Prison Construction

Colquitt County Commission approved Tuesday a 20-year lease agreement on a recently closed state correctional facility to replace its aging county prison. Commissioners voted unanimously to enter into the lease under which the county will pay $25,050 per year for use of the facility at Spence Field. The Georgia Department of Corrections closed the Southwest Probation Center in May. News from the Moultrie Observer.

The decision to lease the 222-bed facility to replace the current facility that dates to the 1950s makes sense economically, Commissioner Johnny Hardin said during a telephone interview Wednesday.

“(Commissioner) Luke (Strong) brought it up last night about the estimate, $6.5 million to build a new one,” Hardin said. “We still wouldn’t have but $1 million that’s there right now, and you don’t know if voters will approve another sales tax for a prison.”

The county has about $1 million earmarked in the current special purpose local option sales tax for prison improvements or replacement. That money can be used for needed repairs and the addition of holding cells at the state facility but likely will not be used toward making lease payments.

“If you had to build one (prison) you’d pay more than $25,000 a year in interest,” Hardin said. “I just think that for that amount of money, for the taxpayers benefit, if we’re going to have prisoners down the road we’re going to save a lot of money leasing that.”

Prison Warden Billy Howell said Wednesday that the detention center facility also offers enhanced security that is not available at the current county correctional facility. Correctional officers will be able to view inmates in living quarters in a control room, and when officers go into those areas they can be monitored by others.

The current prison “is just a security nightmare,” he said. “I’ve said that before. Out there it will be a lot easier to monitor inmates.”

Howell said that the new facility can be opened with the same 15 certified correctional officers currently on staff. Depending on how it works out, there could be a need for one or two additional officers.

The state pays the county $20 per inmate per day, which amounts to about $1.2 million per year, and the county gets the benefit of about 100 laborers per day.

Even if an increase in personnel is needed to operate the leased facility, it would still be a bargain for the county, Hardin said.

“If we were to close the inmates down and had to turn around and hire enough employees to do that work, that would be $1.5 to $2 million,” he said.

Some additional issues other than the renovations and addition have to be worked out related to the move. One is food preparation, which currently is done by prison inmates for that facility and the adjacent Colquitt County Jail.

Other planning also will be necessary, as will training for correctional officers, Howell said.

“We’ll have to have a transition time in there,” Howell said.

Another issue raised Tuesday by Sheriff Al Whittington was the need for room to expand the jail itself.

The jail has a maximum of 160 beds and is routinely housing up to 155 inmates, he said during a telephone interview Wednesday. Part of that is about 30 to 32 inmates awaiting transfer to state facilities and a growing number of inmates jailed on probation violations.

“That could be the economy,” he said. “They may not have enough money to pay their fines.”

The majority, however, are inmates in the jail on drug charges, Whittington said.

“It’s certainly something — if they could use it in the decision-making process — we’re going to need another pod in 10 to 15 years,” he said.

jchev GA Colquitt County, Jail and Prison Construction

The long-awaited federal prison in Mendota now has an award-winning warden, a growing staff and an opening date that’s coming within sight. After a stop-and-start history, the medium-security facility in western Fresno County is on track to open “early next year,” Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Felicia Ponce said Thursday. News from the Modesto Bee.

For approximately 1,152 inmates, Federal Correctional Institution Mendota will be a new home. For those willing to work inside prison walls, including newly named Warden Paul Copenhaver, the 960-acre facility will present fresh opportunities.

“The activation process has begun, which includes the hiring and training of staff and the purchasing of equipment and supplies,” Ponce said.

The Bureau of Prisons anticipates needing approximately 360 staffers for FCI Mendota, ranging from correctional officers and physician assistants to secretaries and laundry plant managers.

Some have been appointed, including Copenhaver. Until recently, Copenhaver was warden of Federal Correctional Institution Dublin. The Dublin facility is a low-security prison for women.

Last year, Copenhaver won the attorney general’s Award for Excellence from the Justice Department. Officials cited his “high expectations of staff and inmates” as well as his ability to cut overtime costs by one-third.

To lure additional career workers, the bureau has been offering relocation bonuses amounting to 17 percent of annual salary.

Still other Mendota staffers have yet to be hired. Web sites serving career correctional officers are buzzing with questions about the new Mendota prison, while the Bureau of Prisons has been posting online job notices and inducements.

“A federal prison is much like a small city surrounded by the security of a fence,” the Bureau of Prison states in one online job recruitment pitch.

Ponce added that “we an- ticipate inmates beginning to arrive early next year,” although a specific opening date has not yet been established.

“Inmates typically arrive in slow, steady increments over an extended period of time until a facility is nearly full,” Ponce explained.

At the Fresno Regional Workforce Investment Board, marketing and communications director Janis Parker said a number of potential Mendota prison employees have expressed in- terest.

Interest anticipated
Once the prison announces a firm starting date, the Workforce Investment Board will help screen and evaluate potential workers.

“The San Joaquin Valley has double-digit unemployment, and I’m sure there will be a lot of people interested in those positions,” Parker said.

Federal correctional officers typically start at salaries of $36,500 to $48,000 a year.

Completed at a cost of roughly $250 million, the Mendota prison grew more expensive than original estimates in part because of construction interruptions. In addition to the main medium- security facility, construction of an adjacent minimum security camp holding about 130 inmates is expected to be completed by April, Ponce said.

Work on the prison began in February 2005, but the scheduled 2008 completion date fell by the wayside when funding temporarily dried up. As late as March 2010, Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, had to request help from fellow lawmakers in securing the funding necessary to open the Mendota prison.

Last week, Costa noted, San Joaquin Valley officials were “impressed” by what they saw when they were brought in for a tour of the facility.

jchev California, Jail and Prison Construction

A legal move by the state Department of Corrections to speed up the conversion of the Stark prison into an adult prison and an inmate mental health center has provoked a counter maneuver from city attorneys. News from the Daily Bulletin.

Attorneys for the city of Chino have filed a motion against a corrections plan to substantially shorten the environmental review process that would prevent public hearings and prevent the city from weighing in on environmental concerns.

After being prompted by a federal court order in June to speed up the conversion work at the former Herman G. Stark facility by a year, the state filed a recommendation that proposes construction be completed in 2013, one year earlier than originally planned.

The accelerated schedule would eliminate the 45-day public review time period, eliminate a 10-day time frame for providing responses to public comments, and eliminate the 30-day period in which the city, or any other party, could file litigation, according to Chino spokeswoman Michelle Van Der Linden.

“Corrections in turn came back to the judge with an expedited plan that more or less eliminates the need for the (environmental review) document and town hall (public review) meetings,” said Chino Mayor Dennis Yates.

Chino’s motion, filed Friday, would allow city representatives to comment on the recently proposed accelerated plan at Stark. The motion is set to be heard by a federal district judge on Aug. 9. Opposition to the city’s motion is due on July 26, which would allow the city the opportunity to reply before the scheduled hearing.

Local officials are concerned that the plan to shorten the lengthy environmental review process could deprive them and residents the chance to air public safety and environmental concerns. The city’s motion would allow the city to participate as an active party in a federal case that has resulted in the expansion of mental health facility construction throughout the state, Van Der Linden said.

The Stark conversion plan is part of corrections’ compliance with a federal Ninth Circuit appellate court ruling ordering state prison officials to reduce overcrowding and provide more mental health and medical services to inmates.

Bob Sleppy, deputy director of the Environmental Service Branch for Corrections, said that despite the new proposal, the state still would collect local public comment on the conversion prior to release of an environmental impact review document.

“The court ordered us to identify anything that would allow us to gain some time and that’s what we did,” Sleppy said. “We identified those periods to substantially reduce the time frame, but we still intend to do a legal environmental review document with substantial front-end involvement of the community, so we know what their concerns are.”

Chris Meyers, senior chief for facility planning and construction management for the Department of Corrections, said the Stark conversion will turn the former youth prison into an adult prison for reception center inmates and inmates in need of mental health services.

Existing prison buildings at Stark will be converted into a reception center for about 1,800 adult inmates and an additional 384 beds for permanent work crew inmates.

Construction will also bring 575 more beds to a new four-building mental health facility. Two more new buildings planned include a 60-bed correctional treatment center for the temporary treatment of inmates in need of medical and mental health care, and a central health services building for all of the inmates, Meyers said.

State prison officials estimate the total projected budget for the Stark conversion to an adult facility is about $521 million, though corrections is awaiting formal authorization of the project’s scope, budget and schedule by the state Budget Works Board after the plan is reviewed by the Department of Finance and considered by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.

jchev California, Jail and Prison Construction

The public was given a peek at the new Buchanan County Jail on Saturday during an open house. About 300 people toured the structure. Some snacked on peanut butter cookies as members of the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office guided them around the building. Story from KCGR.

Buchanan County Sheriff Bill Wolfgram sits in the control room of the new jail facility in Independence during an open house Saturday, July 10, 2010. Almost three years after a $4.5 million bond referendum was passed to pay for the building, the public was shown the jail before prisoners were moved in.

The facility, which will house inmates and serve as work space for law enforcement staff, was financed by a $4.5 million bond passed in 2007. It was built onto the county courthouse. Sheriff Bill Wolfgram said the jail was a necessary investment for the county.

“It’s a jail … this is not something that anybody wanted to spend money on,” Wolfgram said.

People sometimes want the work of law enforcement to be out of sight and out of mind, he said. But as the bond debate wore on, people began to realize that a jail had to be built.

The old facility was often in violation of Iowa Department of Corrections standards. Staff and inmates had been subjected to hot conditions during the summer, for example. If the jail hadn’t been built, the county might have had to pay other facilities for incarceration costs for years to come.

“We got 70 years out of our facility, which is good,” Wolfgram said of the jail built in 1939. That facility was originally built to house 10 people, but over the years space was added to accommodate more prisoners. Last night, the facility was housing about 20 people.

Wolfgram said the new facility, built onto the south side of the courthouse, can house around 50 inmates and meets state standards.

At the old facility, contraband was sometimes passed from visitors to prisoners. At the new jail, however, inmates will see their visitors in a room equipped with video screens. The new jail also has three pods where prisoners will sleep and live.

Wolfgram said the new building’s communications center and offices will allow his 12 deputies to be more productive and relieve a lot of legwork, such as moving inmates back and forth between jails.

Taking inmates to the courthouse also was made easier, Wolfgram said. Now deputies can walk people directly into a courtroom and not have to pass through a busy hallway.

Mary Kay Miller, who toured the jail Saturday and participated in a “bail for jail” fundraiser Friday got to sample a little bit of the jail life. She wore a red and white jumpsuit and sampled the food.

“It’s not bad,” she said.

jchev Iowa, Jail and Prison Construction

Don’t expect any additional inmates in the Fountain County Jail in the near future. Sheriff Bobby Bass told the Fountain County Commissioners Monday that the Indiana Department of Corrections has turned down the request for “double bunking”. Reported by Commercial-News.

Bass said that he is contacting federal authorities in Washington about doing assessments on the needs of the county jail.

Lee W. Hoard, jail inspector for the north region of the Indiana Department of Corrections, said in a letter to county officials that he “would not, at this time, recommend any increase in offender population.”

Hoard said the jail is not required to follow the American Correction Association Standards for Adult Correctional Facilities since it was built prior to Jan. 1, 1982, but he had reservations about increasing the number.

“There are currently three visitation booths and jail staff report that with the current capacity at 25 inmates, it takes all the time between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to get visits completed,” he said. “To add additional officers may require a modification of the visitation period and possibly additional staff.”

He said the cells and cell blocks do not meet current ACA standards.

“It should be noted that with the current design of the jail and the number of inmates currently present, jail personnel cannot adequately classify the offenders as required by the Indiana jail standards,” Hoard said. “Other concerns are the size of the current kitchen, number of staff to supervise offenders, limited space for indoor/outdoor recreation and limited dining areas for the offenders.”

The commissioners did not comment.

jchev Indiana, Jail and Prison Construction

Local and state officials turned dirt Friday on a new center to help women with criminal records straighten out their lives. The 1st Judicial District of the Iowa Department of Correctional Services broke ground on the $6 million Waterloo Women’s Center for Change. Reported by the Waterloo Daily Courier.

The 45-bed residential correctional facility at the corner of Lafayette and Elm streets will provide treatment and support services to women on probation, parole and work release.

“People can change, and this center will help us facilitate that change,” said Karen Herkelman, district director for the correctional services.

The center will free up room in the existing 150-bed facility at 314 E. Sixth St. and allow officials to serve men and women at separate sites.

John Baldwin, director of the Iowa Department of Corrections, said the center represents a commitment to residential corrections that should not be abandoned in tough economic times. His department will be asked to fund 19 new positions to open the center when it’s completed in February or March.

“I have no doubt that the operation here … will produce amazing results for the women incarcerated in our system,” Baldwin said.

Lt. Gov. Patty Judge also was on hand for the ceremony and defended the I-JOBS program providing the money for construction. The $875 million bonding program, which is to be repaid with gaming revenues, was designed after the floods and in a deep global economic recession to pay for infrastructure projects that created jobs.

Despite naysayers, Judge said, “that’s the path we’ve chosen, and we’re going to put thousands of Iowans to work in the process.”The Women’s Center for Change is the second building on what is expected to be a human services campus between Lafayette and Mulberry Streets north of the former Rath Packing administration building. Work is well under way on a new Operation Threshold headquarters, and a new distribution center for the Northeast Iowa Food Bank is also in the works.

“In this neighborhood it is so invigorating to see this kind of construction going on,” Waterloo Mayor Buck Clark said. “It’s so vitally important that we have this kind of growth in this part of our community. “

jchev Female Inmates, Iowa, Jail and Prison Construction

The former state penitentiary in Jefferson City has been listed as endangered by the Missouri Alliance for Historical Preservation. News from KOMU.

The penitentiary dates back to 1836 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. The preservtion group says, due to a lack of state funding for maintenance, it is at risk of being lost. Many buildings on the complex have already been demolished and in March, the city received a grant to demolish more.

The penitentiary, older than Alcatraz, was the official state prison until 2004.  It has held such notable inmates as James Earl Ray, members of Jesse James’s gang, and the Reno Gang, which perpetrated the first recorded train robbery in American history.

Other mid-Missouri sites on the list include the Cole County Jail and Sheriff’s Office and the Chariton County Jail and Sheriff’s residence.

Missouri Preservation is a non-profit organization that promotes historic preservation activities throughout the state and annually releases a list of endangered historical sites. The Alliance has been active since 1976 and has been publishing the annual list of endangered historical sites since 2000.

jchev Jail and Prison Construction, MO Jefferson County

Colquitt County is looking at a recycling project on a large scale — putting the state prison detention center slated to close this month into use to house the county’s prisoners. The Georgia Department of Corrections announced Monday that it will close the 222-bed facility at the end of the month. Story in the Moultrie Observer.

In a news release, the agency said that closing the Southwest Probation Detention Center in Moultrie will save the state $2.1 million a year.

The county has recognized the need to either renovate or replace its correctional facilities, and has money earmarked in the current Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax to begin that process, County Administrator Bryan Shuler said Tuesday. The state facility, which will close May 31, could fit the bill, he said.

“We are interested in discussing the detention center and seeing what options are available,” he said. “Purchasing could be one, leasing could be another to look at as an alternative to our existing correctional institute.”

Shuler said the county has not yet been in contact with the state on making a deal as it only recently learned of the closing.

Whether acquiring the detention center makes sense depends on the condition of the facility and how much money the county would have to put into it, he said.

“We’ve been in discussion about some major repairs or replacement for the current facility,” Shuler said. “This is something we want to take to the appropriate parties and see what kind of possibilities there might be. That’s the first step.”

The county houses about 200 state prisoners at its correctional facility. It is paid $30 per day per prisoner, and those inmates are used as laborers.

The state detention facility houses up to 222 male inmates and employs 50 people, the Department of Correction news release said. Those workers will be offered transfers, most within a 50-mile radius of Moultrie.

The agency did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment about its plans for the facility and whether it would consider a sale or lease to the county.

jchev Jail and Prison Construction

The United States has entered into a comprehensive, cooperative agreement with Cook County, Ill., and the Cook County Sheriff that resolves previous findings of unconstitutional conditions at the Cook County Jail, the Justice Department announced today. The agreement resolves the United States’ investigation, which began in 2007 and concluded in 2008, that the jail systematically violated inmates’ constitutional rights by the use of excessive force by staff, the failure to protect inmates from harm by fellow inmates, inadequate medical and mental health care, and a lack of adequate fire safety and sanitation. Press release from the DOJ Office of Public Affairs.

The agreement was filed today together with a new federal lawsuit. The 60-page document, called an Agreed Order, is pending approval by a federal judge in U.S. District Court in Chicago. The jail is the nation’s largest single-site county jail, consisting of multiple buildings located on 96 acres on Chicago’s West Side, with an average daily population of more than 8,500 adult male and female inmates.

Under the agreement, Cook County and the sheriff will implement detailed remedial measures to ensure that jail inmates are safe and receive the services necessary to meet their constitutional rights, including hiring more than 600 additional correctional officers over the next year. Other highlights include comprehensive provisions aimed at changing the jail’s permissive culture surrounding the excessive use of force, including steps directed at proper investigation of excessive force allegations; as well as improving jail policies, procedures and practices to protect inmates from harm by providing adequate medical and mental health care, fire and suicide prevention, sanitation, and employee training.

Compliance with the agreement will be overseen by four mutually selected, independent monitors, who will be paid by the county and will exercise broad duties, respectively, over corrections, medical care, mental health care, and the physical plant. Beginning in four months, the monitors are required to issue status reports to the court every six months. The agreement lists eight separate substantive sections and terminates as to each of those sections when Cook County and the sheriff have achieved “substantial compliance” with the provisions regarding each of those sections and then maintain that compliance for 18 months. The agreement anticipates that the parties will achieve substantial compliance with all provisions within four years.

“It is a jurisdiction’s basic responsibility to protect those persons in its custody from harm and to uphold their constitutional rights,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “We have worked cooperatively with Cook County officials to craft an agreement to ensure that the constitutional rights of Cook County Jail inmates are protected, and we commend Sheriff Dart, Cook County and the Cook County Department of Corrections for their willingness to work aggressively to remedy these problems.”

“We are pleased that with the cooperation of Sheriff Dart and the County, we have achieved a rigorous, comprehensive agreement that will remedy the unconstitutional conditions that were found at the Cook County Jail,” said Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. “Inmates are entitled to conditions of confinement that pass constitutional muster.”

The Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office began investigating the jail in February 2007, pursuant to the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA), a federal civil rights law that authorizes the Attorney General to investigate and root out systemic abuses of persons confined in adult detention and correctional facilities. The investigation included two week-long on-site visits to the jail in 2007 and the review of documents dating back to January 2006. The United States’ findings were delivered in July 2008 to Cook County Board President Todd H. Stroger and Sheriff Thomas Dart and were made public later that same month.

According to the 2008 findings, three jail inmates committed suicide in the first four months of that year alone. The investigation further identified, since 2006, multiple preventable inmate deaths and a preventable amputation due to inadequate medical care, and separate incidents of unchecked inmate violence in 2006 that resulted in two inmate deaths. The 2008 findings also concluded that inmates were regularly subjected to inappropriate and excessive use of physical force by jail staff, even when inmates posed no threat to anyone’s safety or to the jail’s security.

The lawsuit filed today names as defendants: Cook County, Sheriff Dart, Board President Stroger and the Cook County Board of Commissioners, all in their official capacity. All corrections and security functions at the jail are administered by the sheriff through the Department of Corrections, while health care services are provided by Cermak Health Services of Cook County, a part of the Cook County Bureau of Health. According to the agreement, “throughout the course of the investigation, the United States received complete cooperation and access to all facilities and documents from the Cook County Board of Commissioners and the Cook County Sheriff’s Office.”

Under the agreement, the Department of Corrections is required to hire, train and put on duty at least 448 new corrections officers by Dec. 31, 2010, and an additional 174 new corrections officers by March 30, 2011. Other provisions require increased supervision of inmate housing areas, including regular inspections to prevent inmate possession of dangerous contraband. The county must also increase overhead video surveillance and recording cameras throughout the common areas of the jail.

Other terms include measures to appropriately identify the excessive use of force by staff, including investigations triggered by suspicious inmate injuries and inconsistent reports by staff, which must be written with sufficient detail. All injuries sustained by inmates and staff must be photographed, and disciplinary action must be proposed for correctional officers who either engage in excessive use of force or fail to accurately report any incidents involving use of force.

The county-operated Cermak Hospital, located at the jail, must develop policies and procedures to ensure constitutionally adequate medical and mental health care, including suicide prevention. Detailed provisions require sufficient levels of staffing, an adequate medication distribution system, unified medical and mental health records, and timely access to all levels of medical and mental health care, including specialists. Inmates with serious mental illness must be treated with therapy and other mental health programs, according to the agreement, and an inmate’s serious mental illness must be considered in determining the appropriateness of segregation and other disciplinary measures.

The United States has been represented by former Assistant U.S. Attorney Joan Laser, while Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Johnson, together with Kerry Krentler Dean, David Deutsch and Corey Sanders, Trial Attorneys in the Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division, continue to represent the United States.

jchev IL Cook County, Jail and Prison Construction

jchev Jail and Prison Construction, KS Rooks County, Kansas

Spokane County commissioners are still exploring options as they prepare to take final testimony on proposed jail sites. A public hearing Wednesday will focus on a study that says, if cost didn’t matter, the county courthouse campus is the best site for a new jail to replace the Geiger Corrections Center. Reported in The Spokesman-Review.

The second- and third-best sites would be undeveloped land in Airway Heights, next to Spokane County Raceway Park, and near the Medical Lake interchange of Interstate 90, according to consultants.

Integrus Architecture and Jim Kolva Associates say construction would cost more at the courthouse site, in large measure because it would require a $21.3 million parking garage.

Commissioners heard several possibilities last week for satisfying the parking needs without a garage, but there was no silver bullet.

The three-level, 712-space parking garage would be on county land across Broadway Avenue from the courthouse and the Public Works Building. Two small office buildings would be demolished, and occupants would be transferred to other county quarters.

Jail operating costs would be lower at the courthouse site because duplicated services and transportation costs would be eliminated. Also, there would be better access to courts, attorneys and other important services.

But the undeveloped sites offer more flexibility for future expansion. It could be enlarged one 256-bed “pod” at a time, possibly without additional bond measures.

Wherever the new jail is built, an integral part of the project is a separate, 256-bed community corrections center where day-release inmates would receive classes, counseling and treatment.

Until last week, the “essential public facilities” site evaluation assumed the community corrections center would be near the new jail. But sheriff’s Lt. Mike Sparber, the project manager, suggested it might be better to build the community corrections center on the courthouse campus regardless of where the new jail is located.

That raised a legal question: Does the county site-selection ordinance for jails and other unpopular facilities allow commissioners to use two of the recommended sites?

Although the community corrections center by itself would require only 49 parking spaces, plans call for it to be built on a 263-space parking lot.

Another possibility that emerged last week was purchase of the privately owned Monroe Court office building for the community corrections center. The building at 901 N. Monroe St. adjoins the courthouse campus but is outside the “essential public facilities” study area.

Chief Civil Deputy Prosecutor Jim Emacio said the county might be able to use the building without another six-month, $70,000 study if the city of Spokane and surrounding property owners agreed.

However, he said that would be risky because people who formally opposed the courthouse site – including much of the downtown business establishment – might have standing for a lawsuit.

Officials also were looking into the possibility of shoehorning the community corrections center into a space next to the proposed jail tower, saving 263 parking spaces.

The Monroe Court building would not only save those spaces but add 170.

Don Coon, the county’s design and construction manager, says the Monroe Court building also would provide an entire floor of surplus space – about 26,000 square feet – that could be rented out or used for county offices.

Allowing 50 parking places for the surplus office space and 49 for the community corrections center, the 170-space Monroe Court parking lot would offset all but 210 of the extra spaces needed for the jail project.

Rough estimates are that the building would cost $11 million to $13 million and would require $11.7 million worth of renovation.

The cost would be about the same as a parking garage, and there still wouldn’t be enough spaces to meet the city of Spokane’s minimum requirement.

Coon said the county might purchase vacant land at the western edge of the courthouse campus for a 110-space parking lot. He estimated purchase and development cost at $1.1 million.

jchev Jail and Prison Construction, WA Spokane County

A study released this week suggests that Hays County’s cramped jail can be expanded rather than rebuilt, saving the county tens of millions of dollars. Seeming to settle a hot button issue that has dogged the Commissioners Court for more than a year, a consultant’s wide-ranging study of the Hays County criminal justice system says the existing jail will serve the county’s needs for the next decade with an addition of about 100 new beds.

Officials can expect the jail population to remain relatively flat over the next 10 years with an average population of 321 and a peak population of 326 in 2020. That population can be accommodated at the 362-bed Hays County Law Enforcement Center on Uhland Road in San Marcos with the addition of 48-96 beds. The jail needs the extra space to handle incarceration standards like segregating male and female inmates and those with medical and mental conditions.

“Today we have good news about the jail and good news about the criminal justice system as well… It doesn’t mean we won’t need to put serious dollars into our jail but it changes the equation dramatically,” said Pct. 2 Commissioner Jeff Barton, who initiated the study last year.

The jail situation has been fraught with political implications since the Texas Commissioner on Jail Standards ordered the facility’s kitchen shut down in November and threatened more extreme sanctions. That order was later set aside on appeal but not before Sheriff Tommy Ratliff and County Judge Elizabeth Sumter used the occasion to argue for the construction of a new jail, saying the county would need 600 to 1,000 beds in coming years.

Brenda Jenkins of Broaddus and Associates said the current jail site has more than enough room to accommodate needed expansion. She estimated the addition of beds and renovation of the existing facility at “less than $25 million,” a fraction of the $50-60 million price tag of a new jail.

“The jail commission would prefer counties to build enough beds where you have some real flexibility but you also don’t want to be in a position where you’re telling taxpayers why you overbuilt,” said Margo Frasier, a former Travis County sheriff who is a principal at MGT. Later she added, “There are a lot of folks who are in the jail building business saying ‘Build extra, build extra.’”

At Tuesday’s Commissioners Court session when results of the jail study were outlined, Sumter suggested that the numbers MGT used to create its projections were inadequate. She hung the argument largely on a 2007 study by the Jail Standards Commission that indicated the need for a much larger facility.

“The quality of the data that went into this is my biggest question,” Sumter said.

For his part, Ratliff – a vocal proponent of a costly new jail just a month ago – pointedly declined to take exception with the report’s findings. Asked if the study’s anticipation of small growth in jail population squared with his expectations, he said, “It’s not my job to make that prediction…  It’s [the commissioners court’s] job to tell what the future holds.”

Besides findings on the jail population, the MGT study identified other areas in which the county can streamline its criminal justice system.

Among these, the study said, the county does not adequately use its Odyssey data management system. In addition, the county should invest in a program like electronic monitoring for probationers and consider a pretrial program to winnow low-risk offenders from those who need to be contained in jail. Additionally, the study said, the county should coordinate between justices of the peace and higher courts to set standards for bail.

Commissioners emphasized that MGT’s recommendations are nonbinding and will need to be implemented with input from elected officials who comprise the backbone of the local criminal justice system. Nevertheless, the study gives decisionmakers information they need to make plans for the future, officials said.

Said Pct. 3 Commissioner Will Conley, “It’s a great time to take a deep breath in Hays County. We have been flying for the last decade… Making this investment in planning I think is going to pay off in the long run.”

jchev Jail and Prison Construction, TX Hay County

After years of hard work, Williamson County will soon see the construction of a new county jail. “We’re very busy,” Williamson County Jail Administrator Gray Tyner said. Story from WorldNow and KFVS12.

At the start of the day on Tuesday, the Williamson County Jail housed 82 inmates.  However, Tyner said with the approach of summer that number would go up.

“We’ve always got people in it (the jail).  That takes a lot of wear and tear and abuse and everything we have here has not been replaced since 1985 or 1972,” Tyner said.

Originally, the jail was constructed with just 35 beds back in 1972. However, as the county grew, so did the need for jail space.  In 1985 more beds were added totaling 112 but Tyner said their working capacity is at 86 inmates.

Recently the Illinois Department of Corrections inspected the Williamson County Jail. An inspection report outlines nine areas of concern, which involve lack of space, overcrowding, and plumbing problems. If not solved, Tyner said the state could shut down the jail.

Williamson County Board Chairman Brent Gentry said the findings are no surprise, because they have been talking about the problems for years. On Monday, bond money needed to start construction on the new jail arrived in the county’s bank account.

“We have a long term plan for how to pay for the jail without raising any new taxes,” Gentry said.

Gentry said the plan includes the use of federal stimulus dollars and bonds, which will be paid off over the next 30 years. The whole project is expected to cost Williamson County 25 million dollars.

But county commissioner Ron Ellis said he is not sure how the county plans to pay the extra expenses of a 240-bed jail.

“We have never addressed the issues of where the money is going to come from, who’s going to be paying it, what fund it’s going to come from to cover those daily operation expense of this new jail,” Ellis said.

County commissioner Tracey Glenn argued, “We have sat down and estimated the expenses based on the square footage and the equipment and all of that.”  She added, “Yes, we’ve addressed the staffing issues.”

The county will also build a new parking lot to replace the one lost by the new jail.  The facility will be located between the old building and the new county administration offices.

Construction is expected to begin in the coming weeks and should be finished in about a year and a half.

jchev IL Williamson County, Jail and Prison Construction

A bill has been introduced in the Florida Senate that may lead to the closing of three Panhandle prisons, at a possible cost of 600 jobs. Reported by WMBB News.

Section 4 of SB 2700 deals with Criminal Justice and Corrections.  It calls for a transition plan to take place in which three prisons will be closed in order to populate the new Blackwater River Correctional Institution, a privatized institution which is under construction in Milton, Florida.

The Department of Corrections is required by the bill to provide Senators with a list of three institutions to be closed.  The list is due by July 1st.

Several County Commissioners plan to hold a press conference on the potential effects of the bill at 2:30 today in Sneads, Florida.

From the bill:
The Department of Corrections shall provide a transition plan to the chairs of the Full Appropriations Council on General Government & Health Care and the Senate Policy and Steering Committee on Ways and Means no later than July 1, 2010, which includes the list of the institution(s) to be closed to populate Blackwater River Correctional Institution and the institution(s) to be privatized. To expedite the contracting process, all information pertinent to developing contracts shall be provided to the Department of Financial Services no later than July 1, 2010. The department shall submit any amendment necessary to facilitate the transfer of funding from the Adult Male Private Prison Operations category to another private prison operations category if a different type institution is determined.

jchev Florida, Jail and Prison Construction