Anchorage Daily News

The state has reached a key milestone in its prison expansion plans, announcing today an agreement with the city of Seward to expand its maximum-security prison there by 144 beds.

The new beds will provide a medium-security wing at Spring Creek Correctional Center within an expanded perimeter fence, which will be useful in shifting prisoners as they prepare to re-enter society, said Richard Schmitz, a spokesman for the state Corrections Department.

Under the new agreement, Seward will sell revenue bonds to pay for the $22.8 million project, which also calls for renovation of the prison kitchen and other space. The project is to be completed by 2010.

Spring Creek is the state's only prison that houses only maximum-security inmates. It opened in 1988 under a similar arrangement, in which Seward paid to build the prison with bonds that the state paid off. Spring Creek houses 550 inmates.

The expansion in Seward is part of a long-range prison plan the state Legislature authorized in 2004. The plan includes construction of a 1,536-bed prison at Point Mackenzie in the Mat-Su Borough, as well as a 68-bed expansion at the Yukon-Kuskokwim Correctional Center in Bethel.

The legislation set out per-bed cost figures the state must meet if it goes ahead with building. Cost of the Mat-Su prison, scaled back somewhat since 2004, is $257 million.

The state had 838 prisoners housed in a private facility in Arizona as of today, Schmitz said. The new Mat-Su prison, slated to open in 2012, will allow some inmates to return to Alaska, he said. But the new beds in Seward probably will be needed to keep up with expected in-state growth, he said.

Schmitz said having a medium-security wing at Spring Creek will give prison managers more flexibility and prisoners a goal to work toward as they prepare for community release.

"Rather than move to another facility with another culture and way of doing things, they can stay and remain in the same program activities," Schmitz said.

Seward city manager Phillip Oates said Spring Creek has provided jobs and families for the town and has been considered a good neighbor. The state prison is located on the opposite shore of Resurrection Bay from the town itself.

A memorandum of understanding between the state and Seward is scheduled to be signed at Monday's city council meeting in Seward, state and city officials said.

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