By Mary Catherine Brooks
Wyoming County Bureau Chief
— Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of articles concerning the impact of the new federal prison to the regional area.
Heavy metal doors slam closed and the lock catches with the distinctive sound of incarceration.
The new Federal Corrections Institution McDowell sprawls across the man-made mountain top in the Indian Ridge Industrial Park, just across the Wyoming County border. Fog envelopes the miles of razor-topped fencing designed to imprison 1,152 medium security male offenders, scheduled to begin arriving in late autumn, across the 44 enclosed acres.
The total compound — including the warehouse, the kitchen facilities, the minimum-security camp where another 128 male offenders will serve out their sentences — covers nearly 450 acres. The buildings cover just over 14 acres on the compound.
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Uniformed employees, carrying walkie-talkies, dart here and there on the compound, going about the business of readying the federal prison for the arrival of the inmates.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, employees were also allowing community residents to tour the facility.
Visitors drive upon on the newly-paved access road, climbing to the pinnacle where millions upon millions of cubic feet of earth were used to fill the valleys and ravines, connecting the ridge tops to create the now-level 500-plus acres. Work started on the site preparation 10 years ago. Actual construction on the prison began about three years ago.
The Coalfields Expressway and the King Coal Highway will intersect near the federal prison. The Coalfields Expressway has been leveled to grade on the 500-acre site.
Giant retailers and other job-creating entities are now expected to follow.
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“We’ve come a long way,” emphasized Kenny Cauley, the warden.
Cauley has been at the prison since November and now makes his home in Welch.
The facility will employee 330 full-time staffers and is projected to pump about $38 million annually into the local economy.
Currently, there are 193 employees working on site; 19 of those were placed last week and participating in Introduction to Corrections Techniques Phase I training. After two weeks in the McDowell County facility, they move on to three more weeks of training, or phase two, in Georgia, Caulley explains.
“We’re big on training,” explains Ty Baxter, associate warden of operations.
The Bureau of Prisons is also big on integrity, Baxter explains, noting integrity and other core values are emphasized in all the training.
All employees go through a hiring process designed to obtain the most qualified staff. Some are transferred in from other federal corrections facilities and some are “local” hires. Thus far about 50 percent are from McDowell or surrounding counties, Cauley said.
All employees — cooks, secretaries, guards, among other positions — are considered correctional officers and undergo the same training. With the exceptions of clergy and doctors, all have to qualify with a weapon.
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Security, of course, is the main focus — in the facility design and construction, in the employee training, even in what is available in the prison store.
Nearly half of the inmate population will be made up of drug offenders.
Other prisoners will include those convicted on weapons, explosives, or arson violations, robbery, immigration offenses, among others.
The median inmate age will be about 35 years old, with a median sentence length of about eight years.
Most inmates will come from a 500-mile radius to promote visits with family.
In some instances, however, security needs or educational needs will override that radius, Baxter said.
The tour begins in the administrative building, where several guards are stationed and stop any visitor coming through the heavy metal doors.
There is a visitors’ waiting room, along with conference rooms, classrooms, offices, a computer lab, and an armory where the weapons are kept. The weapons are secured in a building where inmates will not be allowed, Baxter notes.
Allegations of prisoner or staff misconduct, or of gang activities, will be fully investigated, Baxter said, while pointing out the special investigations services room.
Federal monies will be allocated for operations and the budget is strictly maintained, he said.
Additional monies will be generated inside the prison, through the commissary where prisoners can make purchases, they also pay for phone calls and e-mail. These monies go into the prison “trust fund.”
Inmate phone calls are monitored and the call recipient is automatically notified the call is coming from a federal prison, Baxter notes. Inmate calls can only be placed to names on an approved list. It is the same for e-mail.
Mail is also monitored and the mail room is designed to be sealed off in case of biological hazards or other emergencies.
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To enter the prison complex, visitors pass through the “sally port,” where the doors slam with that distinctive catch of the locks. Employees entering the complex turn a numbered tag, from one of the job categories posted, on a peg board so corrections officers know how many employees are inside the complex at any given moment.
It is still another two- to three-minute walk, inside the razor-wired complex, to prisoner housing, recreation, or cafeteria facilities.
There is a large visitors area, akin to a large hospital waiting room, where prisoners may meet with family members. There is also a smaller room where visits with children can be conducted. Prisoners may initially hug and kiss their visitor, but after that initial touch, they must sit side-by-side.
Prisoners are searched before entering the visitors area, then strip-searched after leaving the area.
“We want to promote those family ties,” Baxter points out, because the inmates’ families will be their support when they leave the prison.
Additionally, there are visiting rooms separated by a glass partition with contact only through telephones.
Inmates are provided medical and dental care inside the facility.
Prisoners who pose a security risk are housed in the Special Housing Unit, where cells contain one bed, cabinet, and desk, all bolted to the floor, along with a combination toilet and sink, and a shower with no curtain.
Other inmates are housed two per cell, with bunk beds, desk and cabinet, also bolted to the floor.
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Inmates are encouraged to participate in recreation activities, as well as classes such as art, and job skills training to ease their return to the outside world, Baxter explained.
