NEWS

April 21, 2010
State penitentiary construction set to begin

It has been five years in the making, but construction of a new Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison will kick off Thursday with a groundbreaking ceremony.

Officials will break from an Iowa Board of Corrections meeting to visit the construction site, which is located at 2097 330th Ave., north of Fort Madison.

"I know it's going to come along," Sen. Gene Fraise, D-Fort Madison, said previously when the state hit a recession. "The only thing that would stop it is if people decided to behave themselves so there would be no inmates showing up that we'd have to house, but we haven't seen strong indications of that."

The $130 million project is bonded for out of criminal and court funds.

The new facility will replace the existing 550-bed maximum-security facility, which began construction in 1834 and opened in 1839. The new facility will house an additional 250 inmates with modern construction and technology that will enhance the safety of the public, staff and inmates.

Marketed as a historical day for the Department of Corrections, the ceremony will be hosted by Democratic Gov. Chet Culver, Iowa Department of Corrections Director John Baldwin, ISP Warden John Ault and the corrections board.

"I asked for this because I believe replacing this prison is first and foremost a matter of public safety," Culver said when signing the construction bill at ISP in May 2008.

The state approved consultant firm Pulitzer/Bogard & Associates, along with the firm Durrant Group, to begin work on a master plan for the Department of Corrections in July 2006.

Due in part to a 2005 prison escape at ISP, the Fort Madison prison was at the forefront of consideration for a new facility as part of the study.

The state Legislature approved plans for building a new facility, as well as remodeling at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville, in May 2008.

Construction was always planned to begin in 2010, with an anticipated completion date of a 800-bed maximum security prison in December 2012. Even after construction is complete, some areas of the current facility — located on U.S. 61 near the Santa Fe Swing Span Bridge leading to Illinois; will remain in operation. Those components include the critical care unit, the John Bennett medium-security unit and the two farms.

Parts of the old building are also unlikely to be torn down because it is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Board of Corrections will meet for an hour, starting at 8:30 a.m. Thursday at the clinical care unit in the current main prison and will reconvene after the ceremony.

The first part of the meeting will include an ISP design update. After the ceremony, the board will resume discussion on items including construction updates on community-based corrections facilities, a mental health update and information on the ISP transition process.

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