Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm gave an update Wednesday on construction of the $1.25 billion, 4,000-bed prison in Elmore County.
Hamm said the prison is about 40% complete. He talked about the massive scope of the project.
Hamm said there will soon be almost 1,000 construction workers and nine cranes in operation at the site.
Hamm showed photos of the site in a presentation to the Legislature’s prison oversight committee. The ADOC does drone flyovers every two weeks for photos to document the construction. Members of the oversight committee visited the site on Tuesday.
The prison, which will be called the Elmore Specialized Men’s Facility because it will include about 700 beds for medical and mental health care, is targeted for completion in 2026.
“It’s going to be larger than a lot of county seats,” Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, said.
“We’re building a hospital. We’re building a mental health facility. We’re building a prison. And a community college. All in the same spot,” said Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville, chairman of the prison oversight committee.
The project will include vocational education programs for inmates, such as welding, diesel mechanics, HVAC, and others taught by Ingram State Technical College.
Chambliss said he believes the layout of the Elmore Specialized Men’s Facility, with about 50 buildings across about 300 acres, will be conducive to effective management and rehabilitation programs.
“The way it’s designed and arranged is going to provide a lot better outcomes in my opinion as a layman,” Chambliss said.
“It’s not like 4,000 people in this big old building,” Chambliss said. “It’s not like that at all. It’s separated out. It’s like a campus.”
In October 2021, the Legislature approved a $1.3 billion plan to build two 4,000-bed prisons, one in Elmore County and one in Escambia County.
The cost of the Elmore prison rose sharply after an initial estimate of $623 million. Lawmakers will have to find additional funding to proceed with the second prison in Escambia County.
Gov. Kay Ivey and legislative leaders have said the new prisons were an essential part of the solution to problems identified by the Department of Justice in a lawsuit over unsafe conditions in Alabama’s men’s prisons, filed in December 2020.
Hamm’s presentation to lawmakers included a chart showing the inmate population has held steady at about 21,000 over the last year.
Hamm said the ADOC continues to work to address a staffing shortage. He said numbers are up at the training academy for correctional officers and correctional security guards.
At the last meeting of the oversight committee in August, Hamm said a substantial pay raise passed last year had resulted in a net gain in correctional officers, reversing a trend of declining numbers.
