Published: May 08, 2008 11:57 pm         

New federal prison project ahead of schedule, officials say

WELCH, WV — Machinery grinds and hums, moving in myriad directions across the expanse of a man-made flat mountaintop. Giant cranes lift concrete cell blocks in some locations and huge bundles of roofing materials in others. Craftsmen, skilled in a variety of building trades, move like ants through the maze of ongoing construction.

Sitting off the beaten path, near the Wyoming County line, the new federal prison is ahead of schedule, according to officials.

Clark Construction, the company which has the contract to build the new facility in McDowell County’s Indian Ridge Industrial Park, will complete the $250 million, multi-building complex late next summer, according to Sid Harmon, an assistant project superintendent.

However, the company has until November 2009 to turn the facility over to the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Currently there are 240 people employed on the site; Harmon said that number will double or even triple in the coming months.

The prison cell blocks can house up to 1,800 medium-security inmates, Harmon explained.

Medium-security inmates are classified as those with a range for “medium” violence and escape risk.

On another area of the 600-acre compound, a “white-collar,” or minimum-security, camp will house 200 inmates.

Camp inmates are not considered a risk to the general public, nor are they likely to walk away from the facility. Their sentences are two years or less and they will serve their sentences without any locked doors or security fencing, according to officials.

Central to the complex will be a kitchen/cafeteria building where inmates will prepare and serve their own food.

A medical building will house doctors, dentists and other necessary medical services for inmates.

A vocational training center will also be constructed and inmates will work in the BOP’s Unicor business, which provides a variety of products that are built on site then shipped to buyers. The doors in this facility were constructed at another BOP Unicor site, according to Lance Lane, also an assistant superintendent on the project.

The institution also provides areas for inmate recreation, including a gym and a courtyard, enclosed by the prison facilities.

Another building, just off the main entrance gate, will serve as the location to deliver supplies for operating the entire complex.

Also among the buildings will be a garage where the compound’s fleet will be serviced.

Administration and employee training facilities will be in separate locations on the site.

All the buildings will be heated and cooled by water running throughout the compound, all underground. The water will be heated by boilers in the winter and cooled by “chillers” in the summer from a central utilities building.

Cement slabs have been poured for all the buildings.

Cells arrive pre-cast, already painted with plumbing and electrical equipment installed.

They are set on the slabs, stacked four high at some locations, and the equipment connected.

The reinforced concrete is a means to deter escape, along with locked doors and other internal electronic security devices.

Additionally, the medium-security complex will be surrounded with doubled razor-wire fencing, security cameras and a white rock border.

Once construction is complete, the facility will not be used until Congress appropriates funding for operations, officials explained.



Mary Catherine Brooks writes for The Register-Herald in Beckley, W.Va.