Planning begins on possible prison addition

By NATE HUBBARD/Staff

Thanks to funds from the Virginia General Assembly, preliminary plans are being developed for a potential new housing unit at the Bland Correctional Center.
Included in a nearly $1.5 billion capital outlay project funding bill, the state governing body approved in April the allocation of $344,000 to the Department of Corrections to create plans for a 200-bed addition in Bland.
Gov. Tim Kaine then signed the bill in late May.
Despite having planning funds secured, there is no official timeline as of yet for construction, said Larry Traylor, DOC director of communications.
“There’s no breaking ground, there’s no appropriations for the actual facility,” Traylor said. “Right now it’s just looking at planning.”
Traylor described the proposed addition as a “dormitory unit.” He cautioned, though, that a new building might not actually lead to more prison space – or a consequent potential need for new jobs – as it may simply replace an older structure.
“We’ve been doing that slowly around the state,” Traylor said.
Larry Jarvis, the warden at Bland Correctional Center, referred all questions about plans for the new unit to Traylor.
Jarvis said the medium-security correctional center currently has an average daily population of 652 prisoners. He said the last upgrade he can recall to the Bland prison occurred around 2000 when a one-building add-on created space for more than 60 new inmates.
The center first opened in 1946, but it has been expanded and renovated many times during the past 60 years.
“It was a much smaller facility in 1946 than it is today,” Jarvis said.
After developing more detailed plans for the new Bland dormitory, Traylor expected that the department would ask for construction fund appropriations during the General Assembly’s 2009 session.
Two state officials Traylor recommended for additional insight into a potential construction timeline were not in the office Monday afternoon.
“It is still very, very early,” Traylor said regarding the lack of ironclad details at this time. “It could change.”
Nate Hubbard can be reached at 1-800-655-1406 or .