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March 12, 2009
PA: Officials present preliminary plans for Graterford Prison replacement
03/11/2009
WEB EXCLUSIVE ... Officials present preliminary plans for Graterford Prison replacement
By: David Hare , For The Valley Item
At a Skippack Township Board of Supervisors meeting March 11, state officials presented preliminary plans for two new prisons that will replace Graterford State Prison.
The project is part of the state's efforts to address prison overcrowding. The new facility will house up to 4,000 inmates, according to the state's Department of General Services.
Design-build requests for proposals, or RFPs, will open in June, said Liz O'Reilly, deputy secretary of public works at the DGS.
The design-build concept will enable construction to begin as soon as possible this year by requiring the contractors who win the bid to design the structures as they are being built, according to O'Reilly.
"We're aiming to have shovels in the ground by Labor Day," she said.
DGS has hired Hill International Co. to oversee the project.
Marc Goldberg, deputy secretary for administration at the state's Department of Corrections, said Pennsylvania's prison population has grown by 21 percent in the past six years, from 37,995 in 2001 to more than 49,300 today.
The prison population is predicted to grow an average of 4 percent each year through 2012, according to Goldberg.
Graterford currently holds 3,400 inmates. The two new prisons would house about 4,000 inmates: 2,000 in a medium security facility, and another 2,000 in an adjacent maximum security facility.
"Every inmate is given a complete assessment of what they need when they're with us," Goldberg said. "About 90 percent of these inmates are going to eventually be released, so we do the best we can to make sure they're prepared for that transition. Education is a big part of that."
The Graterford project is part of a broader state construction initiative that will add nearly 9,000 beds to the state's prison system, according to Department of General Services. Other projects include new prisons in Centre and Fayette counties, as well as four additional housing units in Crawford, Forest, Indiana and Northumberland counties.
At Wednesday's meeting Skippack resident Rich Lowry said he didn't have a problem living near the old prison, but now that it's being shut down, he wondered why the new prison couldn't be built in a more rural area.
"If ever there was a time to move it, now's the time," Lowry said. "The prison doesn't support this area, we the taxpayers do."
Other residents also made comments indicating they were against the project and pleaded with the township supervisors to intervene on their behalf.
Supervisors Chairman Mark Marino said the township is limited in what it can do since the state owns the prison property.
"We can't say no to them building here," Marino said, then added, "We're citizens here too."
http://www.valleyitem.com/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=1306&dept_id=187831&newsid=20278413
This and other news about the financing and siting of prisons can be found at www.realcostofprisons.org/blog/
Posted by lois at March 12, 2009 10:18 AM