Huttonsville Correctional Center is a

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

located near Huttonsville in

Randolph County Randolph County is the name of eight counties in the United States: *Randolph County, Alabama *Randolph County, Arkansas *Randolph County, Georgia *Randolph County, Illinois *Randolph County, Indiana *Randolph County, Missouri *Randolph County, Nort ...

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

. It was created by an act of the Legislature in 1937 to relieve overcrowding at the West Virginia State Penitentiary. It remained a branch of the parent institution until 1947, at which time the Legislature established it as a separate entity – the West Virginia Medium Security Prison. In 1970, the center received its current name by legislative act. Huttonsville Correctional Center has been in operation since 1939 and is the oldest facility in the state. With recently completed construction, the capacity of the Huttonsville Correctional Center is 1,186. Living quarters at this facility consist of military style dormitories in the original building and single/multi-cell housing in the new units. A Segregation Unit known as "The Hole" and an Intake Unit were established upon the opening of the new additions, which houses 120 single cells. Huttonsville Correctional Center is one of the largest employers in Randolph County with a Staff of 383. There are many educational programs, both vocational and academic, offered to inmates by The State Department Of Education. These classes give them an opportunity to engage in rehabilitation efforts during their incarceration. Inmates are able to attend classes in the Adult Basic Education Program to work towards or obtain GED certificates. Vocational Courses offered includes Auto Mechanics, Auto Body, Welding, Machine Shop, Carpentry, Masonry, Electrical, and Computer Lab. Prison Industries operate the Braille Program and Furniture plant located at Huttonsville. Regular textbooks are transcribed into Braille and distributed throughout the United States. The furniture plant refinishes and builds new furniture for various agencies. The original focus of the prison was as a labor-intensive general-purpose

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

. In 1977 the farm was turned over to the state Farm Management Commission and converted to a beef

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

operation, and the majority of inmates were transferred to other work. Today inmates work on the cattle farm, in a

furniture Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...

plant, automotive parts shop, and welding shop. The prison is the largest transcriber of

textbook A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textboo ...

s into

Braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are Blindness, blind, Deafblindness, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on Paper embossing, embossed paper ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, accounting for almost 90% of the Braille textbooks. The current capacity of the prison is 1183. The majority of inmates live in

barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...

-style housing, but two new 120-inmate cell units were opened in 2000.

External links

Huttonsville Correctional Center
{{State prisons in West Virginia Prisons in West Virginia Buildings and structures in Randolph County, West Virginia 1939 establishments in West Virginia

See also

External links