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https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/2023/08...-now-tops-1-2b/

The Indiana Department of Correction plans to close the state prison in Michigan City after a new, $1.2 billion prison facility was approved last week by budget regulators.

That’s a change from the DOC’s previous plan to keep both the old and new prison sites open.

The Indiana Budget Committee on Friday gave the greenlight for the new prison on the site of the existing Westville Correctional Facility. DOC officials said the 4,200-bed site will combine and replace the current Westville and Michigan City facilities.


Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis. (From the Indiana House Democrats)
“It’s outdated like Westville is, and it doesn’t come without emergency repairs on an annual basis totaling about $1 million to $2 million a year,” DOC Commissioner Christina Reagle said of the Michigan City prison.

She noted the state has more than $380 million in planned capital at the site already. Reagle said that although closing the state prison wasn’t part of the original plan, doing so will save the state $45 million a year in operating costs.

The DOC said renovations of the existing prisons would not be cost effective and wouldn’t address many of the needs included in the new facility.

“The annual operating savings alone of closing the Indiana State Prison would create a payback of less than 20 years on this project, and we avoid nearly $400 million in capital asks,” she continued, saying “it just overall makes sense” to close the facility.

But some Democratic members of the state budget committee called into question the cost of the new prison project and expressed concerns about the abrupt decision to close the Michigan City site.

“I was on the Ways and Means Committee, and I don’t remember being advised that we were suddenly talking about two prisons rather than one prison,” state Rep. Ed Delaney, D-Indianapolis, said during Friday’s committee meeting. “This is a very interesting evolution, to say the least.”

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https://www.wndu.com/2023/08/07/what-comes-...a-state-prison/

What will life after prison look like?

Michigan City is getting a head start on planning for the day the Indiana State Prison closes.

Last Friday, a plan was unveiled to shut down the prison in Michigan City in about four years. At about the same time, the state awarded a $329,000 grant to help the community map out future development priorities for the 100-acre site.

These are exciting times in Michigan City. Improvements being made on the South Shore Railroad promise to cut the travel time between Michigan City and Chicago to one hour.


Suddenly, plans call for the construction of a new 12-story apartment building at the Michigan City train station.

Although city leaders are excited about what is coming to town, some are just as excited about what is leaving town.

“This is one of the things that I talked about, as far as, you know, what would Michigan City look like if the prison and NIPSCO were gone?” said Michigan City Councilwoman Angie Nelson Deuitch. As we were going through the process people told me I was crazy, that’ll never happen, and I’m like, it just makes sense to me.”

There are now plans to shut down NIPSCO’s coal burning beachfront power plant, and the sprawling Indiana State Prison in the years to come.

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Wow, that really is BIG news. Guess the only way of seeing it in the future, is by watching Sir Trevor McDonald's:


Life On Death Row: Inside Indiana State Maximum Security Prison

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This is such a big thing. Look, even if nothing is built on this site, and it just turns into a green space or something similar, it is a big positive for the community.

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Ground broken for new, $1.2B Westville Correctional Facility

WESTVILLE — Twelve shovels with silver-colored blades pierced a representative mound of dirt in a field in this LaPorte County community Thursday to officially commence construction on the priciest state building project in Indiana history.

When complete in early 2027 the new, $1.2 billion Westville Correctional Facility will be a state-of-the-art replacement for the current Westville facility, a state mental health center constructed in 1951 that awkwardly was converted into a prison more than 40 years ago, and the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City whose first bricks were laid prior to the Civil War.

“There is no bigger project in the state of Indiana than this one right here,” proclaimed Gov. Eric Holcomb at the groundbreaking ceremony. “This is historic. This is turning a corner.”

The Republican chief executive and other state officials said the new Westville, first and foremost, will be a safer facility for Indiana Department of Correction (DOC) employees, incarcerated individuals and Hoosiers in general.

Solid walls will go up in place of the easily damaged drywall that currently separates some spaces at Westville, sight lines will be open and visible, and staff never again will be away from a nearby colleague or video coverage.

“It’s our responsibility to keep folks outside and inside the gate safe,” Holcomb said. “That $1.2 billion is going to, long-term, save us a lot of money, rather than pouring good money after bad or into temporary projects.”

At the same time, officials said the 4,200 men of all security classifications set to be incarcerated at the new, 1.4-million square foot Westville facility will have unprecedented access to mental health and substance abuse treatment, purposeful programming, and more vocational and educational training opportunities than any other prison in the state.

“All of this is planned with the end goal of returning the incarcerated individuals in our charge back to society as productive, lawful citizens,” said Kevin Orme, DOC director of construction services.

DOC Commissioner Christina Reagle said the notion of demolishing the existing Westville and Michigan City prisons, and consolidating their populations in an up-to-date replacement at Westville, was not much more than a dream written on a few pieces of paper in a manila folder labeled “Someday” when she began working at the state agency 12 years ago.

After myriad revisions and rethinking, and action by the Republican-controlled General Assembly to cash-fund the project in the 2021-22 and 2023-24 state budgets, Reagle said she’s “thrilled” to have finally reached the groundbreaking — even though preliminary demolition work has been underway at Westville for months.

“This facility wasn’t planned by a group of architects and construction professionals sitting in a room drawing it out. It was planned by traveling across the state of Indiana, and the United States, talking with line staff, experts in the field and incarcerated people,” Reagle said.

“We borrowed ideas from all over. We learned from one another. And we incorporated their ideas and the lessons learned into a facility plan that will drive this agency forward.”

Reagle specifically noted the 240-bed specialized mental health unit included in the new Westville was designed by mental health professionals with their patients in mind. She said up to 80% of incarcerated individuals require mental health or addiction recovery services.

“That programming, along with surrounding education and workforce development programming, will be able to be offered in the housing units, which allows for learning to take place no matter what’s going on elsewhere in the facility, or in the world, as we learned with COVID-19,” she said.

Reagle added that Westville employees also will benefit from new wellness programs, break rooms, locker rooms and showers, in addition to top-of-the-line technology and security measures.

“We are so excited to get this project started, and we can’t wait for this new facility to open so we can better serve our staff, our population and our community,” Reagle said.

“As the state's soon-to-be largest correctional facility, it will be Westville's largest water and sewer customer, helping to pay local infrastructure maintenance costs,” Pressel said.

“Employees from both facilities will keep their jobs and more will be added. The new WCF will include security upgrades to better protect staff and inmates, and we'll see expanded health and education services, increased efforts to reduce recidivism, and significantly improved operational efficiency and housing capacity.”

Likewise, preparing for the redevelopment of the Indiana State Prison parcel near Lake Michigan and downtown Michigan City is underway — an opportunity of such size and magnitude the governor mentioned it alongside the ongoing double-tracking of the South Shore Line and the forthcoming construction of a new inn at Potato Creek State Park near South Bend, the first state park inn to be constructed since 1939.

“That (Indiana State Prison) facility, we’ve gotten our money’s worth from it,” Holcomb said. “We are at that point right now where you can start to plan, long-term, for a different use of a primo piece of property in Michigan City, and not continue to pour money into refurbishing a facility that was built before Lincoln was sworn-in as president.”

Indeed, the term-limited governor said the groundbreaking at Westville made him kind of “sentimental,” just thinking about where Indiana was 10 years ago, where it is today, and where the state will stand 10 years from now.

Earlier, he toured the Hitachi Global Air Power manufacturing facility in Michigan City and spoke to a small group of employees about Indiana’s continuing commitment to growing and attracting manufacturing industries in the Hoosier State.

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signs a shovel Thursday at the groundbreaking at new Westville Correctional Facility. He is joined by Christina Reagle, Commissioner, Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Correction, and Kevin Orme. Director, Construction Services Division at State of Indiana, Department of Correction.

John J. Watkins, The Times
Work continues on demolition of some of the old Westville Correctional Facility as dignitaries prepare for the groundbreaking at new Westville Correctional Facility.

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Officials break ground on new, $1.2B Westville Correctional Facility



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