An Era of Upgrades
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Leonard R. Witke, AIA, began his career in government facilities in 1979 as an employee for the Wisconsin Department of Health & Human Services, which at one time managed the state’s correctional system. When Wisconsin created the Department of Corrections in 1990, Witke was named director of facilities management, where he served for nine years. |
Correctional News: You’ve been in the business for 25 years and gone through several construction cycles. How has the current drop-off in state work impacted the industry, and what is the likelihood that prison construction will remain slow on the state level?
Len Witke: Historically, state buildings kept the industry afloat when times were slow and the economy was down. State, and in some cases county government, were the builders and they were the ones that created the work. That’s fallen off dramatically due to budgets and the present nature of our economy. It’s been that way for a couple of years and many people see it continuing.
In the last 12 months, I’ve seen a significant amount of work coming about at the county level, but a lot of those things have been in the way of studies and master planning efforts rather than hard construction. People are still resistant, it seems, to put dollars into the building just yet. Part of it is driven by questions about where the economy is going and how it will impact us.
On the flip side, with states, they tend to take longer to recover than a county or a city, so it will probably hit them a little later. There has been a slowing of inmates coming into the system. Everybody reads about the crime rate being down, but of course longer stays in the prison system and recidivism continue to keep these populations fairly high.
The increase is still there, but the grade of that slope is lower than it was five or 10 years ago. I see that continuing for a while. I’ve noticed people starting to talk about the phenomena that we’ve built a lot of schools due to population needs, and eventually some of the kids who are occupying the chairs in those schools are going to end up in the correctional system. Some people say that this trend will start in 2006 or 2007, some say later. Anything that is cyclical, whether it’s the stock market or population growth occurs time and time again. It’s not absolute, but you will see it happen.
I think the drop off will continue for several years. People at the state level are very concerned about how the state budgets are being controlled and the impact on maintenance dollars. Not only can’t they build what they need in terms of new facilities, but also their maintenance dollars have been slashed or eliminated. There are serious problems with buildings that were put together in a hurry to address the burgeoning inmate numbers in the late 80s and early 90s. Those buildings are starting to have significant problems and they don’t have the money to take care of them.
In the early 80s, all we talked about was where we were going to find maintenance dollars. We had bad roofs, bad locks, bad windows and doors. It’s happening all over again. We got comfortable. We were in a building boom and nobody put money away in a rainy-day fund. Although we may not be doing new prisons and jails, I think there’s going to be a lot of work in upgrades and improvements to existing facilities.
Also, you will see a real push for special needs facilities. Populations are growing older and there are a lot of drug problems. States are going to have to find a way to address those issues and functions. Illinois is addressing those needs right now. We’re working on a $25 million project in Dixon, Ill., and they are looking at a second one in the future. It is a geriatric, mental health, skilled care nursing facility that deals with many specialties.
CN: Budgets are tight and steel costs are high. How is this impacting correctional construction?
LW: It is, and I want to point out that it’s not just steel; it’s concrete and gypsum products as well. A fairly good-sized CM was telling us of a project they bid in Chicago. It was an office structure. They had a lot of dry wall in it. The dry-wall contractor successfully bid the job and it was twice what they expected.
The CM went to him and said, “You’re way over budget. What can you do?” He told them that he couldn’t reduce the price and, in fact, he couldn’t hold it for more than 30 days. They said OK, and went to talk to the owner. The owner said that they had to get the job going and to take the bid and move on.
The CM goes back in three days and the dry-waller said, “You know what? The price has doubled.” The CM goes again to the owner, the owner approves it, they go back to the dry-wall contractor, offer him the contract, it’s sitting on the table, and he says, “I can’t take this contract because I can’t guarantee the price.” We are in that kind of situation now.
We are going to have to look more carefully at the materials we select, how we reinforce things. People will begin looking at substitute products.
CN: Durrant Justice won the contract for the Winnebago County Jail in downtown Rockford, Ill., one of largest jail projects currently being planned in the United States. What are some of the challenges in building a high-rise, downtown jail?
LW: They are interesting. I want to point out, when we use the word “high-rise,” this is an 87-foot building. It’s more of a mid-rise. Our bid date looks to be December of this year. The jail is four stories and two of those are what we call mezzanine floors.
The building next door will be the justice center, which will be courts and the sheriff’s office. That will only be a three-story building. One of the reason’s that was done was so we could keep the building under 100 feet and stay away from the real high-rise. That dictated how we approached the siting of the facility and the massing of it.
In downtown Rockford, it came down to aesthetics. The community was extremely concerned. They wanted to be sure that it wasn’t an eyesore. Also, they were worried about the jail being a key building in the downtown and the first thing that people saw when they drove into town.
We did a facility in Milwaukee, a 1,000-bed facility, and honestly, even though it is across from the county jail, it looks like an office building. That’s the way things are going. People don’t mind the buildings are there; they are functional, near the courthouse and public transportation. We spend a little more money on the exterior of the structure. But there are chase-walls behind the exterior wall of the building and they are the actual secure element of the building.
The exterior of the building is a commercial structure. It’s not as expensive as the old jails where the reinforced walls were right on the street. It’s a little easier to do and, to be honest, it’s a lot more fun to do. It gives us a challenge to make it look good, where historically it’s been a solid piece of concrete that wasn’t very pretty.
Also, in Rockford we had community involvement from the day we started and our team really enjoys that. It’s been a very integrated process where people from the community, the county and our staff have been working pretty much hand in hand throughout the whole project.
CN: Electronic systems are becoming increasingly integrated. What does this mean for the end-user, the officer at the touch screen?
LW: I think it means everything is at his or her disposal. In some cases, it means going mobile; we’re looking at wireless systems today. As a matter of fact, we are designing quite a bit of that into the courthouse and sheriff’s offices of the Winnebago project. Officers who will be responsible for security in that building will have PDAs in their hands. They can bring up video cameras and voice communications, almost anything that is out of file and in the system can be brought up on their hand-helds.
The amazing change is going from what was quite restrictive in past years, in terms of a single path and how you get there, to pretty much putting everything into a digital stream. Once it becomes digital it becomes available and you can do a great deal with it. Let’s say that the court system has sentenced an individual and returns him to jail. The jail staff doesn’t have to recreate a new file. It can be immediately available from the court.
There is a potential to reduce staff time, and staff positions, and make it much easier to access the data. The less times you have to enter information, the fewer mistakes you’ll make.
CN: How does digital technology make operating a facility easier? Are there any advances that have yet to catch on?
LW: Certainly the idea of digitizing everything is happening on its own in almost every industry we talk about; video, voice, radios. True integration has not really caught on yet. We think it’s just a step away. At the Winnebago County project in Rockford, we are making every effort to do this. It will eliminate a lot of duplication of information and uses fiber optics very effectively.
CN: How do you stay aware of new developments in your industry?
LW: Besides reading Correctional News? I also network. One of our reasons for going to ACA is to network and see what’s going on and to hear what’s new. When I was in corrections, ACA supported a technology group who talked about what technology requirements should be. That was extremely helpful. Also, I talk to a lot of vendors to make sure that we at Durrant are aware of what’s out there and what is leading edge.
I believe that, as architects and engineers, the environments we create can make all justice related facilities better places to work and live. We can help state organizations and counties find ways to use their funds more effectively to create the treatment-based and supportive spaces where people can receive help before they go out on the street. We have an opportunity, should the building continue and grow – and I think it will – to take a better approach and look at sustainability and design.
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