NCJ Number
137195
Journal
Federal Prisons Journal Volume: 2 Issue: 4 Dated: (Winter 1992) Pages: 43- 47,55
Date Published
1992
Length
6 pages
Annotation
The huge size of Alaska, combined with its difficult terrain and weather, posed major challenges to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) when it became responsible for Alaska's jails in 1953.
Abstract
Before BOP took over, Alaska used jail buildings that were poorly constructed, poorly maintained, and insecure, with correctional staffs that were unconcerned, untrained, and unmotivated. During the first years of BOP operations, the need for building maintenance strained the chronically low budgets. However, the BOP gradually brought the system under control, building a new jail at Anchorage and establishing a new prison at Elmendorf Air Force Base. The BOP ended its operation of the Alaska jails gradually after Alaska became a State in 1959. Map, photographs, and description of an inspection trip to Alaska by a former BOP director