Alaska DOC to build 1,260 bed facility

[Greg]

Adding more space in Alaska's prisons | KTUU.COM (TV)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- It won't be a mega-prison like originally thought, but plans to put a new prison out at Point McKenzie in the Mat-Su Valley are moving forward.

It's just one piece of the strategy to create more space to house more inmates in Alaska.

In five years, estimates say the state of Alaska will need to add 2,000 more prison beds to keep up with demand, so growth is on the way.

A new prison at Point McKenzie will be coming on line, but Alaska Department of Corrections Commissioner Joe Schmidt said smaller than planned.

"Instead of a 2,250 bed mega-prison, we'll have 1,260 bed facility," Schmidt said.

Regional expansion could also be on the horizon, by adding on to existing correctional facilities statewide.

Bethel will be getting 66 new beds, Fairbanks will get 80 and 144 in Seward.

"When you can add on to what you have it is significantly cheaper than starting over," Schmidt said.

Another push to ease overcrowding and house more inmates in-state than out of state, is to make sure that if they qualify for halfway houses, they get there by ensuring they aren't overlooked.

"We ensure that there is nobody sitting in that jail that doesn't need to be sitting there," Schmidt said.

The state out-sources to private firms like Cornell Companies, to run the seven halfway houses statewide which currently hold more than 600 prisoners.

Cornell operates six of the halfway houses, three here in Anchorage.

The company just signed on this month to open more space at its Midtown facility, and Cornell Companies CEO James Hyman said keep an eye out for expansion possibilities at others.

"We are making sure that those beds can be brought on stream and filled as the [Department of Corrections] requires," Hyman said.

As part of the original expansion plan, the Anchorage Correctional Complex was scheduled to get 200 additional beds, but Schmidt said because of federal funding shifts that won't be happening.

[Crosstimbers Okie]

Cool. I think Alaska DOC would be a good place to work. Sounds like a good retirement job !

[robeans]

BTW, Alaska LOVES current or prior CO's. We have had 5 in the last couple of years go straight up there without having to start at the beginning with training. I tell ya, it's tempting, but it's real dark in the winter.

[Crosstimbers Okie]

I've got a friend who's lived in Alaska for 6 years. He says that there's an old saying in Alaska that goes somthing like, "If you first come to Alaska in the summer, you'll never want to leave. If you first come in the winter, you'll never want to come back."

[Greg]

I lived on Elmendorf AFB (Anchorage) for almost 4 years. I absolutely loved it there, and I'm always trying to cook up some way to get back up there.

Most of the prisons are in the Matanuska-Susitna valley about 40 miles from Anchorage. You've got the best of everything there (except warm weather).

The winters in that area are not too bad as winters go...not nearly as bad as other places I've lived in Montana and North Dakota. You get a real winter there, but it's not windy. North Dakota on the other hand...brrrrr!

From what I understand, most of their shift work is 7-12 hour shifts followed by 7 days off.