ANCHORAGE (AP) - An Alaska prison that was closed for about five years reopened Aug. 16 after a nearly $17 million renovation, corrections officials said.
The reopening of the Palmer Correctional Facility in Sutton will add about 300 beds to the state’s current prison capacity of about 5,200. The prison closed in 2016 because of a declining inmate population and as the state wanted to cut costs.
The state estimates it will cost about $15 million a year to operate the prison.
The number of people incarcerated in Alaska increased over the past two years until it fell during the pandemic. The state’s prisons are currently operating at about 95% capacity.
Criminal justice reform advocates expressed concern about the timing of the reopening and what it says about the overall direction of Alaska’s justice system, with prison populations continuing to increase.
“More beds does not make us safer,” said Megan Edge, spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska.
Edge said it will only be a matter of time before the reopened Palmer facility is at capacity. She said a more humane and cost-effective option would be to move people to parole and other reentry programs.
“The solution is to lower the prison population,” she said. “It is not to just keep building more warehouses.”
The renovated prison will be divided into medium- and minimum-security wings. It will house people serving sentences and those awaiting sentencing.
Palmer Correctional Co-Superintendent Deirdre Banachowicz said overall, the facility is more desirable for incarcerated people than others where she has worked.
“Each one of the rooms has windows in it, which is kind of unlike other facilities. You have beautiful mountain views. It’s just a different environment in general,” she said. “And I think it’s very conducive to rehabilitation.”
Edge said that money would be better spent on services to help people leaving prison to find good jobs and provide better mental health care. The state found in 2019 that it costs about $60,000 a year to house each inmate.
A union leader also expressed concern about what the prison’s reopening may mean for understaffed corrections officers who he said already work mandatory overtime and are called to work on their days off.
“It’s insanity, really, to take staff away from institutions that are already compromising the safety of their staff and the inmates that they’re caring for to ramp up and open a new facility,” Randy McLellan, president of Alaska Correctional Officers Association, told Alaska Public Media.
The prison system has experienced an exodus of workers since the beginning of the year. The Department of Corrections said 1 in 10 corrections officer positions are unfilled.
The prison’s co-superintendents said that with staff transfers and new recruits, they do not anticipate difficulty in hiring the 106 officers needed to operate the reopened prison at full capacity by October. The state is offering a $5,000 signing bonus to entice applicants.
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