Rough Weather Slows Prison Expansion

The same huge snow and ice storm that hit much of the North-western USA has slowed Corrections Corporation of America's project for enlarging the prison at Shelby. After a flurry of work on the estimated 96 bed building divided by two "pods" Winter weather and other issues have all but halted work at the building site. Pods are the separated sections used to segregate certain populations of inmates. Pods in groups of two or three are under the control of a Pod Control Officer. The newest section of pods to the Shelby prison will be for federal inmates only. The building is largely prefabricated off-site as large concrete sections and are moved by heavy hauling Semi-trucks to the building site. Bad weather makes it to dangerous to move and install them. Besides this, the new fresh concrete that the building sits on needs time to cure/harden. NBMC has also learned that this new section will be largely inmate cell units built of steel rather than the full concrete of the original areas.

In the below photo, a lonely guard post sits empty as work is halted. Even though the new building area is heavily divided by fence and razor wire, each truck and contractor, plus, their employees must be checked before entering the construction zone. There is an entry way from the existing prison layed out that will access the new building when the construction is complete, but will be finished only when ready to safely relocate the prisoners.
NBMC Shelby Photo

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