Design – Construction – Operations
WASHINGTON — The public safety construction sector will perform relatively well compared to other nonresidential sectors and avoid the worst of the declines in project activity for the next two years, according to the American Institute of Architects semi-annual forecast.
Read moreSAN FRANCISCO — California must release tens of thousands of inmates to relieve dangerous overcrowding in state prisons and improve substandard healthcare and conditions, according to a special three-judge federal panel.
The order would cap the state prison population at 120 percent to 145 percent of design capacity, which would require 37,000 to 58,000 inmates to be released.
Read moreWASHINGTON — The Department of Justice will administer $2 billion allocated to state and local law enforcement and criminal justice assistance under the federal stimulus package.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed the Office of Justice Programs will make $2 billion available to state and local agencies through the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program.
The funding allocation is part a broader criminal justice assistance package contained in the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed by President Barack Obama in February.
Read moreNEW YORK — The state assembly has revised the Rockefeller Drug Laws, which established mandatory-minimum prison sentences, to expand drug treatment programs and give judges more discretion to decide on probation, treatment or prison sentences for drug offenders.
Read moreSANTA FE, N.M. — Gov. Bill Richardson repealed the death penalty in New Mexico as he signed legislation to replace capital punishment with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment without parole.
New Mexico is only the second state in more than 40 years to abolish the death penalty, joining 13 other states and the District of Columbia in abandoning capital punishment.
Read moreSAN DIEGO — The new U.S. courthouse proposed for downtown San Diego moved a step closer to reality as President Barack Obama signed a $410 billion omnibus-spending bill.
The federal appropriations package included a $110 million earmark for the San Diego courthouse, bringing total federal funding for the project to almost $370 million.
The funding will allow officials to move the project bidding process forward, sign construction contracts and reignite the long-stalled courthouse expansion.
WASHINGTON — Oregon’s Wayne Lyman Morse U.S. Courthouse and the San Francisco federal building scooped the top architecture honors in the 2008 General Services Administration’s Design Excellence Program.
The GSA’s 2008 biennial design awards, released in March, recognize 18 federal projects with awards and citations for design, art and construction excellence. The Morse courthouse in Eugene, Ore., and San Francisco’s federal building, both designed by Morphosis Architecture, received the architectural honor awards.
Read moreARCADIA, Fla. — The GEO Group opened a new $62 million secure treatment facility as the private prison operator announced the consolidation of correctional healthcare functions under the company’s GEO Care division.
The new 720-bed Florida Civil Commitment Center replaces the existing 660-bed facility in Arcadia, and is designed to provide comprehensive treatment programming for offenders detained or committed under Florida’s Sexually Violent Predator Act.
FCCC is Florida’s only civil commitment program for sexual offenders in the state.
Read moreCorrections Corporation of America president and chief operating officer Damon Hininger, the Background Check subject in the July/August issue, will succeed chairman John Ferguson as chief executive officer in October.
Hininger will also join the company’s board of directors, where Ferguson will continue to serve as chairman following his retirement as CEO.
Read moreNATCHEZ, Miss. — Corrections Corporation of America will bring the recently completed Adams County Correctional Facility on line this year to house illegal-immigrant offenders for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
CCA announced the opening of the 2,232-bed Adams County Correctional Facility after winning an FBOP contract to house up to 2,567 federal inmates.
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