By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
ROCHESTER – Few people offered comments last night at a public hearing held so officials could gather input from residents about the impact of building a new state prison facility in Grand Mound.
The state Department of Corrections is scoping out three sites where they might construct what they call a prison reception center in Western Washington. One under consideration is the place currently home to Maple Lane School – a state juvenile correctional facility scheduled to close soon.
The reception center is where offenders go first and stay a few weeks to be evaluated to determine at which particular prison they should serve their time.
About 40 people were in the audience last night at Rochester High School.
David B. Jansen, director of capital programs for DOC, told the gathering that offenders will be bussed in and then back out again from a place expected to “look a great deal like a county jail.”
It would have 1,024 beds, he said.
While the Washington State Correctional Center in Shelton which is used now for reception services, employs about 500 people, Jansen said they would expect the new facility to be more efficient and employ fewer.
DOC would like a new place up and running by 2016.
The meeting was the first part of a process to create an environmental impact statement on the three possible sites, a tool to help prison authorities choose where to build.
A draft EIS should be issued this summer for the public to review and comment upon, Jansen said. The final EIS is expected in late autumn, he said.
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Read more about the process, here
Read more about the meeting in The Olympian, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter