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Iowa offenders get first tour of new Fort Madison prison

On Tuesday, the best behaved of those inmates were allowed for the first time to tour the facility accompanied by officers

By Sarah Tomkinson
The Hawk Eye

FORT MADISON — Since the weekend, the 507 inmates who were transferred to the new Iowa State Penitentiary have had little to pass the time except stare out their new housing unit windows and wait for food to arrive.

On Tuesday, the best behaved of those inmates were allowed for the first time to tour the facility accompanied by guards, including walking the grounds and visiting the cafeteria and medical center.

“Wow! This is all very nice,” an inmate who refers to himself as Country Wilborn said while touring the yard with about 40 others.

Iowa State Penitentiary Warden Nick Ludwick said allowing inmates to tour the facility was a good thing.

“This just means we’re almost ready to be fully functional,” he said.

Maintenance is ongoing at the $180 million facility, with areas needing to be cleaned up, boxes put away and minor details left, such as interior fences and fans yet to be installed. The prison won’t be considered fully functional until maintenance is complete.

Ludwick said the maintenance could take a few weeks.

“We just need the dust cleaned up in the factory, and, then we’ll be ready to go,” said Becky Jones, associate warden of Iowa Prison Industries for the Fort Madison-based prison.

She is hopeful Iowa Prison Industries will be operating at the prison soon. Prison industries hires about 100 offenders, and Jones and Ludwick are aware of the possible consequences of letting the factory sit idle.

“We want to get them back to work as soon as possible, so there’s less chance of negative behavior,” Ludwick said.

Ludwick also worries about the psychological toll of being cooped up in housing units has on inmates.

“Throughout this whole move, their psychological well-being has been a concern of ours,” Ludwick said. “We know when they get to be outside, and in the sun, they respond a lot better.”

Having everything in the housing units ready, including personal items in cells, prior to the move was a measure taken to hasten the inmate’s adjustment to the new prison.

Since moving, several prisoners have been anxious to begin working again.

Inmate Bertum Burkett, who cuts the hair of other prisoners, was the first to enter the new facility. He said he has been patiently waiting to begin using the new prison’s barbershop.

“We didn’t have anything like this at the old place. I really appreciate it,” Burkett said as he looked around the shop.

Besides waiting for maintenance to be completed, little activity is happening. Minimum security offenders who still reside at the John Bennett Center, at the bottom of the hill, come up to the new facility to cook the meals at the new facility.

All the offenders will go on tours by the end of the week to check out the areas they have access to in the prison. Visitations will begin again Friday at the new prison.

It took 220 law enforcement officers from five agencies to move 507 offenders from the old prison to the new facility, 2 1/2 half miles away. Authorities reported no problems in transferring the prisoners to their new home.

The Iowa Department of Corrections used three buses from the Illinois Department of Corrections to move the offenders to the new facility.

It took officials 14 trips to complete the transfer of inmates, said Rebecca Bowker, an executive officer assigned to the state penitentiary in Fort Madison.

Prison staff and inmates had been preparing for the move to the new prison for months, but problems with the new prison’s geothermal and ventilation systems, along with other structural problems, delayed its opening and sent the cost spiraling to about $170 million.

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