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What About Atmore? Alabama Looks To Build Three Prisons, Close Other Facilities
April 29, 2019
The Alabama Department of Corrections is taking a step forward with plans to build three new prisons for men. But what that means for Atmore, home to the Fountain and Holman prisons, remains to be seen.
The ADOC is looking for companies to build the prisons and then lease them back to the state for up to $78 million a year.
The locations of the new prisons have not been announced and remain open based upon the proposals from the private companies that will build them. The proposal request posted by the ADOC, however, does seem to indicate there is no chance the largest facility would be built in Atmore.
“Facility 2″ will have 3,960 beds with about 1.1 million square feet on an estimated 216 acres. According to documents posted by the corrections department, it will be located somewhere in the central part of the state because it will house centralized services such as medical, mental health, aged care and inmate reception.
The two other men’s prisons will have 3,072 beds are require an estimated 187 beds.
All three should be located, according to the ADOC, near population centers that ensure an adequate present and future employment base with an average commute of about 45 minutes. The criteria also provides locations should be within a 45 minutes average commute of existing corrections employee locations.
The third major location criteria for the two smaller prisons is access to a Level 3 trauma center in addition to other inpatient and outpatient services within 30 minutes.
It will be months before the ADOC announces where the new prisons will be constructed and which ones will close. They expect to issue a formal request for proposals in the third quarter of this year and execute an agreement on the largest facility by the end of 2019. Contracts for the other two facilities will be executed in six-month intervals in 2020.
The state will not consider awarding all three contracts to the same developer.
The construction plans come as the U.S. Department of Justice found conditions in Alabama men’s prisons violate the constitution. The Department concluded that there is reasonable cause to believe that the men’s prisons fail to protect prisoners from prisoner-on-prisoner violence and prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse, and fail to provide prisoners with safe conditions.
Pictured: Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. NorthEscambia.com file photo.
Comments
14 Responses to “What About Atmore? Alabama Looks To Build Three Prisons, Close Other Facilities”
Speaking from the perspective of an ex-Alabama Correctional Officer, and seeing DOC crumble in the 2000’s, building new Prisons won’t fix too many things, but changing the operations of how they do business will. When there was a system in place, things ran relatively smooth, but the moment the system left, everything went downhill from there. To get compliance from the inmates get prospective employees, they need to implement principles like incentives for compliance, and get the majority of the inmates on board with it. Then they need to include the Correctional Officers on inmates parole hearings, which would give Officers back some sense of power because won’t know which officers is assigned to their board and will have to chill out if he wants a good report. Who else knows the inmate better than the COs?. The inmates that want to stay gang banging can be separated in segregated cells, then hire more Officers to deal with these isolated inmates. They can create new productive systems for the other half (majority) of the Prison. To me, it would make sense to me to invest time, resources, money and money into something like this since some of these same inmates will be moving next door to you and I, don’t you think?
Alabama prison system is infected, horrible living conditions, officers while rather write a dispalnary first before they acknowledge the you’re Ged certificates and college course skills, they use profanity constantly knowing according to the administrive 208 they shouldn’t. At Elmore they let Capt Mcee or Capt lucky get the last say so over a final copy dispalnary approval and in the administrative 403 It states that that the Warden should do that. They give them clothes that’s been warn don’t provide bleach the bath rooms or beyond flity. Adoc just plain injustice in needs to be rehabilitated there sleeve let alone inmate they bring in the phones and dope how else they get it em ???
Facilities are needed.
Quality, dedicated, educated staff who can be depended on year in and year out, will make a greater difference. Lack of consistency in the work force around inmates, who need structure more than discipline, is paramount.
Quality food; is this possible? Talk about a moral boast that may effect the over all physical and emotional health of inmates and staff, should and can be a priority.
Only concerned for the higher ups in Montgomery(they can’t be inconvenienced to travel to the facilities)!!! Not concerned about the officers that will have to travel and take away from family time(which this job already does)…. I believe it should be put in the same place. Not fair for the officers already working! It’s already a 45 minute drive for most.
I wouldn’t want to live in Atmore anyway. They still have their own issues like everybody else does.
Can Atmore build anything else besides prisons,fast food, and dollar stores?
Hoping the new prisons are not built here, and hoping they close the one that is here in Atmore. the town will be better off without the safety issues involved.
I am all for criminals being imprisoned for their actions. I do have a problem with someone who thinks that the deplorable condition of Alabama’s prisons are just great, and that somehow it will help a person to go there. It’s not conservative or liberal… it’s common sense… a person put in the middle of an atmosphere of drugs, violence, and rape is not going to be rehabilitated. There are a lot of prisons in the U.S. that do offer classes on all kinds of things… GED, addiction, being a parent, job skills, etc. that give the person a fighting chance to change their life.
Norway has a recidivism rate is around 20%. They actually attempt to rehabilitate their criminals. The United States has one of the highest. Over 75% of offenders are back in prison in less than 5 years, which is a big reason we have one of the highest prison populations per capita in the world. I would guess most people come out of Alabama’s prisons much worse off than when they went in.
Like I said. I’m not a liberal. I have common sense.
Amazed at Amazed. Even minor offenses have consequences. Speeding fines, suspended license & other types of “punishment” for other minor offenses. A good many in prisons are there for a very good reason, & there by THEIR choice, with many being repeat offenders, who just don’t seem “to get it”, or just don’t care. Don’t even begin to tell me they don’t know right from wrong. Are you telling us that those such as drug users & other so called “minor” offenses are totally unaware of the consequences of getting caught & going to prison? They & they alone made that bad decision that put them there, & nobody forced them. Chris appears to be correct–Liberal much?
So, it’s the prison’s fault that people break laws? Liberal much?
Some of the comments and mindsets of people on here amaze me sometimes. You’d think they have all never broken a law… even if it’s as minor as breaking the speed limit, buying wine in Atmore and taken it across a state line, or not reporting to the IRS that income they made on a side job. Very many of the people in the lower security levels of prison are there for minor drug offenses. A large percentage of those would not even be there if they would have a had money for a decent lawyer who would have handled their case. Most of them just want to do their time, get back to their families as soon as possible, and to try to make an honest living and not violate their probation. Yes, there are thugs, convicts and gangbangers, but when it gets down to it, by far, most of the inmates are just normal people who have good families and friends on the outside. Everyone makes mistakes. If God still banned every sinner to death with no chance of repentance, how many people would be in heaven? They don’t deserve to be in constant danger of being stabbed or raped because of the deplorable conditions of these prisons. When a prison is clean, has a healthy atmosphere, has classes that inmates can take that will help them earn their GED, learn job skills and learn ways to cope with the things that caused them to get there in the first place… they come out with a much different view on life and a chance to be successful. Violent prisons where sexual abuse, weapons, and drugs are rampant, as well as shenanigans by the staff do absolutely nothing to help rehabilitate an individual who has had a troubled life.
ADOC does not control the actions of the population, a person’s illegal actions/life style is what put(s) them in prison, thus the number of incarcerated people. It starts with the person(s) that procreated a offspring. If they live by & adhere to the laws of our Nation, & raise their children to do the same, no over crowding.
America incarcerated more people than the rest of the world combined. Prison has become a business in this country. I don’t know the answer, but building for-profit prisons is not it
I wonder if these new prisons will have a/c units big screen TV’s indoor poll’s tennis courts etc………
When are they going to address the over crowding? It Will ease the staff and inmates violence .