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By Cathy Ingalls
Mid-valley Sunday
WILSONVILLE -- Except for the coiled razor wire fence, the new Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville looks more like a business complex from the outside than it does a prison.
The 425,000 square feet of sand-colored buildings are secreted behind tall grass-covered berms on 108 acres of rural-residential and light-industrial land. The pastoral scene of mowed grass, trees and plantings contradict what goes on inside.
The prison, the first new women´s facility in 37 years, opened Oct. 15, 2001, to minimum-security prisoners.
On April 18, the first inmates designated for the medium-security building arrived.
Currently, there are about 950 female inmates ages 17 to 67 at the prison. Five of those inmates are from Benton County and 24 are from Linn County.
For the first time in a long while, this new prison allows the state to house all of its female inmates in one place. Previously, women inmates were held in three different locations.
Although the prison has been open for eight months, finishing touches on the $171 million facility that can hold up to 1,360 inmates continue, said prison spokeswoman Norma Land. All work should be completed soon.
Not all of the housing areas in the facility are in use because of state budget problems. The facility is expected to be fully open, however, in the 2003-05 biennium and then will employ about 425 people, she said.
When the need arises and funds are available, there is siting authority for a future build-out to 1,600 beds.
Coffee Creek, named for nearby Coffee Lake, contains cell and barracks-like housing and areas for work and educational programs, job training, treatment options, health services and food preparation.
Also at the prison is an intake and evaluation center that all inmates, male and female, must pass through before being assigned to a prison.
Educational programs help inmates complete their basic education, parenting classes are designed to help inmates take better care of their children when they get out, and alcohol and drug treatment programs teach inmates how to overcome their chemical dependencies.
Classes in woodworking and printing teach inmates a trade as well as show them how hold down jobs and keep them.
A number of women work in the prison as telephone operators for the state Department of Motor Vehicles. They field phone calls from people requesting general information, said Bob Comstock, technician assistant. There is no security risk to anyone who calls, he said.
The prison is run on an incentive system, according to Land. Inmates who behave well are rewarded -- primarily by moving from their 80-square-foot cells for two into a more open dorm-like setting.
Coffee Creek Superintendent Joan Palmateer employs another basic philosophy, Land said. Being sentenced to prison is the punishment so "we don´t punish the inmates more," she said. "No one is treated harshly, and everyone receives respect. People respond better to that."
Maintaining security to prevent escape is paramount, Land said. Trucks entering and leaving the prison go through an electronic scanner sensitive enough to detect the heartbeat of an inmate who might be hiding in the vehicle.
There is no mass movement of inmates in the buildings as there is in other prisons. Lots of inmates together can lead to trouble, so inmates do not eat in a dining hall. Rather, meals prepared in the kitchen are brought in heated carts to the cell blocks.
Outside recreation areas are small compared to the large yards at other prisons. Keeping a few inmates in a small place helps to prevent fights and drug deals.
Inmates take part in the prison´s upkeep. The women shine floors, wash windows and tend plants.
Many of the women now at Coffee Creek came from the Oregon Women´s Correctional Center in Salem. That building is being renovated to become the fifth men´s prison in Salem.
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