$240 million prison going up

POINT MACKENZIE—This week (June 17) community members and elected officials marked the construction of the $240 million Goose Creek Correctional Center with a groundbreaking ceremony.

The construction site is off Alsop Road, nine miles from the dock at Port MacKenzie. The project will bring up to 1,000 indirect and direct jobs as well as utilities to a largely rural area. A Citizens Advisory Committee made up of local landowners has been involved in the project from the start.

Some 650 construction jobs will be required over the three year project, a $100 million in payroll. Additionally some 375 permanent Corrections jobs will be created. The new state prison will help bring home the 800-plus Alaska inmates who are housed in Arizona.

Gov. Sarah Palin was the keynote speaker.

 "This is huge. This is a big darn deal for Alaska, very happy that it’s in the Valley. ...

"It may sound odd for people for us to say we are excited about building a prison, but this is a huge project, job creation and the rehab service this will provide. It’s no ordinary prison. As Commissioner Schmidt has said so many times to me his greatest hope is that someday he’ll be out of a job…some day the prisons and the programs and the rehabilitation efforts will truly pay off in the form of reclaimed lives and character of those incarcerated…"

Mayor-elect for the Borough Talis Colberg made his first public speech representing the Borough. Listen to him via player or read his excerpted quote.

"When I think of a prison, what comes to my mind are words like Alcatraz, Angola, Azkaban," Colberg said. "Commissioner Schmidt, Goose Creek is just not instilling the same tremors. I was thinking what does the name Goose Creek conjure u,p and I was thinking well Mother Goose? I thought well you know that’s not far from really what’s really happening here.
Most of the public has little concern for what happens to prisoners but the fact of the matter is most of them will be released. And what Commissioner Schmidt and Commissioner Bishop have worked so hard on, with the Governor's support for last three years, is to put together a program that takes the prisoners away from AZ and brings them here. These are people who have a need for family and friends support networks that’s sorely lacking very often in their lives and to put them in a different state puts them in a very dire circumstance. This facility brings them closer to the few friends and family they may have. It also is an opportunity for Commissioner Bishop to work with Commissioner Schmidt, as he has so diligently, to put an increase in funding specifically for vocational training and the tools that people need when they get out of prison to do something else other than to become a recidivist," Colberg said.

Manager John Duffy was among the small group of people working on the prison project from the beginning. Among Sen. Lyda Green, Duffy thanked many for their efforts.

President Jerry Neeser of Neeser Construction, Inc. said he was happy to speak on the project.

"We’ve been honing in our skills for 40 years for this project," Neeser said. "It’s a design build project that  we’re very proud to be a part of. We thank all that have been involved in it. We have an excellent team of people from the Dept. of Corrections, from MAT-SU Borough, there are dozens and dozens of people who have rolled up their sleeves to make this, so far, a successful project. And I believe it’s going to be another on time, on budget project for this firm."

Commissioner of the State Dept. of Corrections, Joe Schmidt, said the facility is about change.

"A crowded prison system is not the sickness, ... it gets all the attention it’s not really the problem. The problem is recidivism. A study released in 2007 said that 2/3s of our people had been in prison before. ... Unlike our prisoners that are held out of state right now, they’re closer to their families. And a little piece of that is for better visitation for family , I understand that, but the biggest part for me is assistance in re-entry. That’s the people they lean on to help them get back into society. This facility is about change," Schmidt said.

The Commissioner of the State Dept. of Labor, Click Bishop, spoke about job training for inmates.

"We will continue to work with Commissioner Schmidt to provide training and job placement services," Bishop said. "Commissioner Schmidt and I have worked for three years talking about job placement and training with inmates so we can transition them into the world of work and be responsive and contribute to society in a positive way that’s with a good skill set to make a good paying career."

Pictured left to right in photo: Alaska Rep. Bill Stoltze, Borough Assembly Member Cindy Bettine, Mayor-Elect Talis Colberg, Corrections Commissioner Joe Schmidt, Borough Manager John Duffy, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and President Jerry Neeser of Neeser Construction, Inc.