Next month's opening of the new Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution in Torrington signals two big steps forward for the state's Department of Corrections.
The new $125.6 million prison, which can hold up to 720 inmates, will put its focus where it belongs, on rehabilitation. The extra space will also allow the state to bring back 270 inmates who have been largely warehoused at out-of-state facilities.
The Torrington prison will offer educational classes, vocational training and drug treatment programs. Mike Murphy, the warden of the new facility, noted that 95 percent of Wyoming inmates are eventually released. It's the prison's job to get them ready to become productive citizens on the outside.
"We are not going to be simply a warehouse for prisoners," Murphy explained. "We have to make sure that they're better than when they came in -- or at least that they're no worse."
Education and treatment programs have been missing for many Wyoming inmates who have been kept in out-of-state prisons. Beginning in 1997, overcrowding at Wyoming's existing facilities forced the state to send prisoners to Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma and Virginia.
The moves made it difficult for inmates to be visited regularly by their families. Prisoners who maintain close contact with their families generally have a better outlook and are more prepared to succeed in post-prison life.
They can also receive consistent counseling and programs. That's been impossible for Lynn Lee, a Wyoming inmate who began serving his sentence in 2001 in Crowley, Colo., because the State Penitentiary in Rawlins was full.
He was transferred to County Correctional in southern Colorado, then to Haskell, Texas, and Thayer, Okla. He came back to Wyoming, then spent a year in Virginia. Now he's at the Wyoming Honor Conservation Camp in Newcastle, a minimum-security facility. That's seven different prisons in nine years, including several that were privately run, which Lee described as "massively understaffed."
In deciding to build its new medium-security prison, the Legislature discussed the option of having a private company operate it. Lawmakers made the right decision in not going that route. There have been myriad problems at private prisons throughout the country in recent years, including chronic understaffing, riots and increased gang activity.
"It's very difficult to run a prison for profit and do it right, and most of the time they don't," said Linda Burt, director of the Wyoming chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU monitors the treatment of Wyoming inmates, which can be very difficult when they are kept out of state.
Some legislators were worried about the cost of building a new prison in Torrington, and indeed the price tag of the facility nearly doubled between the time it was approved and actually completed. But since the state was experiencing an economic boom, it was able to pay for the facility without incurring any more debt. Lawmakers can now congratulate themselves for having the wisdom to build the much-needed prison when they had the money to do so.
It's actually less expensive to house inmates out of state than to keep them here, but the benefits of incarcerating them in Wyoming far outweigh the extra cost. Inmates will be able to receive the training and counseling they need, plus stay close to their families. Those are two essential components for rehabilitation.
