Alaskan Prisoners In Colorado

KTUUMonday, December 21, 2009

HUDSON, Colo. -- For the past three years, hundreds of Alaska prisoners were housed in Arizona because the state had nowhere to put them.

But the state's contract with Red Rock Correctional Facility in Eloy, Ariz., is up, and now 850 Alaska inmates are in a new facility a little closer to the Last Frontier.

This month all of the prisoners being housed in Arizona were transferred to Colorado.

"This really is a state-of-the-art prison. I've been to 11 different prisons that I was stationed at with the Federal Bureau of Prisons and this is probably the nicest prison I've ever been in. Of course it's the newest prison," said Rick Veach, the warden at Hudson Correctional Facility.

The Hudson Correctional Facility has 1,250 beds, but right now, only Alaskans are being housed there.

In Arizona, the facility also held prisoners from Hawaii, California and Washington.

"The buildings are spacious; it's a very nice design. We have a central control center in each building. The housing units have a lot of room," Veach said.

"I'm impressed with it. I'm impressed with the start up by Cornell staff, the programming space, the recreational space, food service, the operation," said Garland Armstrong with the Alaska Department of Corrections.

The prison also has a large recreation area, including an 8,000 square foot gymnasium with work-out equipment and two spacious outdoor recreation yards with grass -- something most of these prisoners haven't seen in quite some time.

"When I was here two weeks ago, I happened to observe the rec period for an hour or so, and some of our prisoners were on grass, in bare feet, playing soccer - which I haven't seen in 25 years in the department," Armstrong said.