It was announced a couple of weeks ago that my former employer (the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction) was going to close the institution I once worked at. This is bitter sweet...Bitter because my boyfriend still works there, sweet because the premise behind the institution being built was a sham.
Montgomery Education and Pre Release Center (aka M.E.P.R.C.) opened in 1994 and became part of the C.J. McClin Complex. The idea behind MEPRC was to provide a minimum security institution with premium educational programs. It was not and has not been so.
I was employed at the institution in 2003. When I started my short-lived career at the doomed institution, it was approaching it's 10th anniversary. It also had college programs, GED classes, and a couple of vocational programs. It did a lot of community service through the Crayons 2 Computers program, Pilot Dog program, and a few others. Approximately two to three years later, our state was facing cutbacks, as were others. There were rumors that we would close, combine with the prison next door to us, take on female inmates (as we were an all male institution), or double our population. About a year and half after the rumors started, the state began laying off. MEPRC lost a number of administrative personnel, teachers, and some custody staff. We also combined with Dayton Correctional Institution (D.C.I.). With the cutbacks, many college and educational programs went. A lot of the community service programs that we had prided ourselves on were also eliminated. Vocational programs? Nonexistent. Everything was moved to DCI and MEPRC became a warehouse for DCI's undesirables. To top it off, the administrative staff coddled and catered to these inmates- even gave them contraband (anything an inmate is not authorized to have by DRC policy).
By the time DCI took over, MEPRC was out of control and going down hill. I left after I was attacked by an inmate.
Now, the institution will be closing- possibly by next year. All of the custody staff will be moved to DCI for a total of 243 custody staff at an institution of 797 inmates. My prediction is there will be another layoff. Especially with the new governor and budget.
A prison not even 17 years old facing oblivion. It's sad. Sad the way the state misuses the money of its tax payers. It's sad that so many employees are facing uncertainty.
Overall, the fates are righting the wrongs that have been committed. The institution never should have been opened. It was never ran the way it was intended to be ran. It was a money pit, sometimes costing $81.00 per day per inmate to run the place.
That is government for you, though. Goodbye MEPRC.
