Design Phase Beckons for $250 Million Alaska Prison Plan

POINT MACKENZIE, Alaska — Officials issued solicitations for a proposed 1,536-bed facility that would be the largest prison in the state.

The state Department of Administration, Department of Corrections and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough council recently negotiated design-build requirements for the $250 million state prison project, which will be sited on borough-owned land in Point MacKenzie, says Ted Kinney of the DOC.

“Solicitations for a project management consultant are already on the street and a preliminary notice for design-build solicitations were released in April,” Kinney says.

The proposed project was scaled back from 2,251 beds to 1,536 beds and the original design revised by corrections commissioner Joe Schmidt in 2006 to follow a podular housing design, officials say.

Point MacKenzie already hosts a 112-inmate state correctional farm and the new facility will form part of a regional expansion of DOC capacity.

In 2004, the state Legislature authorized the DOC to develop a new detention facility in the Matanuska-Susitna region. Under the agreement, the DOC will lease the prison from the borough, which will issue revenue bonds to finance the project, officials say.

As part of the department’s regional expansion plan, up to 114 beds will be added to the more than 500-bed maximum-security Spring Creek Correctional Center in Seward and up to 68 beds will be added to the 92-bed Yukon Kuskokwim Correctional Center in Bethel, which houses male and female inmates.

“We anticipate that the two towns will issue bonds in the near future to finance the expansion projects,” Kinney says.

A proposal to increase capacity at the Fairbanks Correctional Facility by 80 beds appears less likely and may be permanently shelved.

“Fairbanks doesn’t look like it is going to happen,” Kinney says.

Officials expect the new prison to be completed by 2011.