In ‘a historic moment,’ a military jail built in 1957 is replaced in Pierce County
A nearly $88 million new jail at Joint Base Lewis-McChord was touted this week as the most modern correctional facility in the Army, replacing a decades-old jail demolished in 2020.
The Northwestern Joint Regional Correctional Facility opened on Thursday following two years of construction and is capable of holding up to 150 inmates from all military branches. Army officials celebrated its completion with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“This is a historic moment,” said Maj. Gen. Duane R. Miller, the commanding general for the U.S. Army Corrections Command.
The 66,000-square-foot facility, one of only a handful within the Army, is intended to house pretrial detainees and inmates serving sentences of up to a year, although it is equipped to confine others.
The medium-security facility replaces the lockup torn down on the same site at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The old facility, constructed in 1957, had been outdated and marred by infrastructure issues. It was spread out across 16 buildings, whereas the new facility is confined to one.
Now inmates can travel from their housing units to a full-fledged medical center, dining facility or chapel without having to weather outdoor elements or necessitate extra security measures, according to Maj. Brandon Benson, the facility’s deputy warden for security.
“For custody, control and care, this is a major upgrade,” he said.
The facility, built on 14 acres, maintains outdoor recreation, a greenhouse and carpentry shop. It offers a canine companion program for well-behaved volunteers that pairs them with a trained dog — from six weeks to 18 months old — that eventually will transition into a service animal, Benson said.
Officials said the facility would provide behavioral health services. Lt. Col. Emil J. Kesselring, commander for the 508th Military Police Detention Battalion, which will operate the jail, said the focus is more on restoration and less on incarceration, unlike when the old jail opened more than six decades ago.
“It gives them a second chance on life,” Kesselring said. “These people are patriots. They volunteered to serve their country, and it’s incumbent upon us to ensure that when they leave here, we don’t have a high recidivism rate.”
This story was originally published December 2, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "In ‘a historic moment,’ a military jail built in 1957 is replaced in Pierce County."
