May 21, 2002 By Christine Haines 6 min read

LUZERNE TWP. – Despite a construction price tag of $108 million, two football fields with running tracks, and a hardwood basketball court, the new state prison in Luzerne township is not a place in which anyone would want to spend any amount of time. Brownsville Area School Board member John Evans tried out one of a cells for a few moments recently while touring the facility with several area officials.

“As soon as the door closed, the hair on my arms started standing up,” Evans said.

Evans, who is with the Pennsylvania Career Link, arranged the tour of the prison site for local officials in preparation for an upcoming job fair for the prison.

Evans began the tour with thoughts of possible paid secretarial jobs at the prison for students through a high school internship program sponsored by the Department of Corrections. After his experience in the cell, he sees other educational possibilities as well.

“Having the school kids go down and take a tour would be a valuable experience,” Evans said. “They talk about the freedoms that they (the inmates) have with the library and cable TV, but your privacy is taken away, your freedom just to be able to go out the door.”

Each cell is 14 by 7 feet and contains a metal bunk, a stainless steel toilet/sink combination, and a metal desk and chair attached to the wall. Most of the cells can house two inmates. Windows are eight inches wide in the areas that have outside windows. The floors are bare concrete. The walls are concrete block.

The new prison sits on 155 developed acres within a 248-acre parcel in the East Millsboro area. A hilltop was leveled and ravines filled to create the level site that will house a maximum or 2,000 inmates and employ more than 400 people.

There will be two maximum-security units capable of housing 180 inmates each, eight medium security units with 256 inmates each and one minimum-security unit for 50 prisoners. There are also eight service buildings inside the fenced area and four outside the perimeter. Houses will be built on the grounds for the warden and two deputy wardens.

Project manager Douglas Zaenger of P.J. Dick Inc. said the prison has been built on rock, so tunneling won’t be a worry for the prison guards. The security systems built into the perimeter fences should also foil escape attempts, Zaenger said. Inmates will first encounter a four-foot high warning fence marking the last area where inmates are permitted.

Two 14-foot fences topped with razor wire and laced with electronic sensors separate the prison grounds from the rest of the world.

“A microwave system between the two fences activates alarms,” Zaenger said.

Large rocks and stacks of razor wire will also be located between the two fences, increasing the deterrent factor for escape.

“That’s good to hear. I live six miles from here, but in addition, I’m a school board member and had concerns for the safety of the children,” Evans said.

The school district’s business manager, William Boucher, saw the prison not as a concrete block and security system structure, but as a potential economic drain on the financially strapped district.

“It’s the largest employer in the school district and it’s a tax-free property. I don’t see it as an economic generator,” Boucher said. “We spend $6,000 a year in this country to educate a child and $18,000 a year to house a prisoner.”

At least one new business has been spawned as a result of the prison construction. Heating and cooling will be done with steam provided by Fayette Thermal, a new steam-generating plant located near the prison.

“They’re going to use the coal refuse pile to fire the generator,” said Ron DeSalvo, Luzerne Township Supervisor.

Zaenger said one of the real control factors will be limits on the number of inmates permitted in any one area at one time. Zaenger said exercise areas are increasingly smaller for each level of security. There are actually 24 cells that are totally self-contained with a shower and small exercise enclosure where inmates can be placed for solitary confinement. Slits in the cell doors can allow guards to handcuff inmates while they are still in their cells or to pass food trays through the door without opening it.

The facility also contains dining halls for inmates in less restrictive circumstances, though inmates will eat in shifts to keep group sizes manageable.

The cells are located around the outer edges of dayroom areas. Guards will be located in a control room in the center of four pods of cells, able to observe all four pods and control all of the locks using computer touch screens. The cell doors will open and close using a pneumatic system that Zaenger said is a fairly recent development in prisons. The locks can also be operated manually, or from a central control room in the administration building where all of the housing areas can be observed electronically.

“There are two 2,000 kilowatt generators to run the plant in a power failure. Allegheny Power has two main lines coming in and there are battery back ups on all of the security systems, so there is no period when everything is shut down,” Zaenger said.

According to Zaenger, there should never be a time when the security systems are without power and only a brief period between a power failure and the time the emergency generators kick in to handle other services until power is restored.

Zaenger said that while it is likely that the Department of Corrections will contract with Brownsville General Hospital or another area facility for major medical care, there will be doctors, nurses and dentists on staff. One wing of the prison is set up for medical care, including not only examination rooms, but rooms for overnight care as well. Zaenger said the medical staff at the prison will even be able to perform minor surgery.

Zaenger said the new prison is scheduled to be completed in August. New employees are being sought for the facility at a job fair being held at Brownsville Area High School June 10-14. Hiring will begin as early as September, though inmates will not be moved to the new prison until 2003.