WINDHAM – Area residents sent a clear message last week to Department of Corrections officials: Don’t build a new prison in our back yard.

The department is seeking approval from the state Legislature to build a new $173 million prison to replace the Maine Correctional Center in Windham. Although the department owns 220 acres on both sides of River Road, if officials heed the calls of nearby property owners, they will only consider potential construction sites on the 108 acres farthest from those neighboring properties. The existing correctional center is located at the southwestern corner of the 220-acre parcel.

“They really need to keep a buffer zone between the prison and the neighborhood,” said Andrea Thompson, who owns a home on Elm Street. “The prison has been there a long time, but so has that neighborhood. That’s one of the oldest neighborhoods in Windham.”

According to corrections officials, out of three viable parcels, the most expensive construction site would be the 108-acre lot south of Mallison Falls Road.

At a public meeting Feb. 20 at Oak Haven Training Center on High Street in South Windham, corrections officials presented two scenarios in which the proposed new prison would be built on land north of Mallison Falls Road – directly adjacent to the neighborhood that runs along High Street, which intersects Mallison Falls Road at the correctional center’s entrance. One of the options would place the prison directly on the southern end of High Street – wiping out that portion of the road.

“Keep it on the south side of Mallison Falls,” said Rodney Pierce, a resident of the High Street neighborhood.

At the meeting, state Sen. Gary Plummer, R-Cumberland, asked for the department’s assurance that the new facility would not be sited on a 63-acre lot on the eastern side of River Road, a lot that abuts the Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals, the largest horse rescue in New England. Department officials said that construction on that parcel would not be possible.

Meris Bickford, chief executive officer of the society, said that she obtains hay from those 63 acres, and that she was glad to know that the proposed new prison would be built, if approved, across the street.

“I was also just as happy to hear that if they build a new facility, their feasibility study indicates that should they actually construct a new facility it would not sit on their property that is on the same side of River Road as the society,” Bickford said.

Plummer said that, after the meeting, he had been reproached by neighbors.

“People were upset that I made a comment that it’s good that it wouldn’t work on the humane society side,” Plummer said. “The feedback I got was, ‘Well, you don’t want it near the animals but you don’t mind having it right near our homes.’ That was not the point at all.”

Plummer said that he does not support the two potential site plans above Mallison Falls Road.

“At this point for me, I’m not sure either of those plans (is) acceptable,” he said. “I did talk to people at the department and said you really need to go back and take another look at those sites closer to the existing facility.”

At the meeting, Arthur Thompson, a planner with Portland-based SMRT architects, is working with the department on the feasibility studies, said that his firm was trying to see whether the various proposed sites would work.

“We’re trying to establish whether they fit,” Thompson said, “and this kind of discussion, is where we’re going to get feedback on your…”

“It don’t fit,” Pierce interrupted.

Thompson said that the prison stands at an adequate distance from the High Street neighborhood.

“There’s plenty big of a buffer zone now, so keep it as it is,” Thompson said. “You always hear the slamming of gates or whatever that noise is and there’s a lot of light pollution, but I think we’ve learned to live with that. I just think if they move it across the road it’s going to be too close to the neighborhood.”

Officials at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham are considering several proposals for siting a new prison complex to replace the aging facility. The construction is dependent on funding from the Maine Legislature. 

WINDHAM – Area residents sent a clear message last week to Department of Corrections officials: Don’t build a new prison in our back yard.

The department is seeking approval from the state Legislature to build a new $173 million prison to replace the Maine Correctional Center in Windham. Although the department owns 220 acres on both sides of River Road, if officials heed the calls of nearby property owners, they will only consider potential construction sites on the 108 acres farthest from those neighboring properties. The existing correctional center is located at the southwestern corner of the 220-acre parcel.

“They really need to keep a buffer zone between the prison and the neighborhood,” said Andrea Thompson, who owns a home on Elm Street. “The prison has been there a long time, but so has that neighborhood. That’s one of the oldest neighborhoods in Windham.”

According to corrections officials, out of three viable parcels, the most expensive construction site would be the 108-acre lot south of Mallison Falls Road.

At a public meeting Feb. 20 at Oak Haven Training Center on High Street in South Windham, corrections officials presented two scenarios in which the proposed new prison would be built on land north of Mallison Falls Road – directly adjacent to the neighborhood that runs along High Street, which intersects Mallison Falls Road at the correctional center’s entrance. One of the options would place the prison directly on the southern end of High Street – wiping out that portion of the road.

“Keep it on the south side of Mallison Falls,” said Rodney Pierce, a resident of the High Street neighborhood.

At the meeting, state Sen. Gary Plummer, R-Cumberland, asked for the department’s assurance that the new facility would not be sited on a 63-acre lot on the eastern side of River Road, a lot that abuts the Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals, the largest horse rescue in New England. Department officials said that construction on that parcel would not be possible.

Meris Bickford, chief executive officer of the society, said that she obtains hay from those 63 acres, and that she was glad to know that the proposed new prison would be built, if approved, across the street.

“I was also just as happy to hear that if they build a new facility, their feasibility study indicates that should they actually construct a new facility it would not sit on their property that is on the same side of River Road as the society,” Bickford said.

Plummer said that, after the meeting, he had been reproached by neighbors.

“People were upset that I made a comment that it’s good that it wouldn’t work on the humane society side,” Plummer said. “The feedback I got was, ‘Well, you don’t want it near the animals but you don’t mind having it right near our homes.’ That was not the point at all.”

Plummer said that he does not support the two potential site plans above Mallison Falls Road.

“At this point for me, I’m not sure either of those plans (is) acceptable,” he said. “I did talk to people at the department and said you really need to go back and take another look at those sites closer to the existing facility.”

At the meeting, Arthur Thompson, a planner with Portland-based SMRT architects, is working with the department on the feasibility studies, said that his firm was trying to see whether the various proposed sites would work.

“We’re trying to establish whether they fit,” Thompson said, “and this kind of discussion, is where we’re going to get feedback on your…”

“It don’t fit,” Pierce interrupted.

Thompson said that the prison stands at an adequate distance from the High Street neighborhood.

“There’s plenty big of a buffer zone now, so keep it as it is,” Thompson said. “You always hear the slamming of gates or whatever that noise is and there’s a lot of light pollution, but I think we’ve learned to live with that. I just think if they move it across the road it’s going to be too close to the neighborhood.”

Officials at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham are considering several proposals for siting a new prison complex to replace the aging facility. The construction is dependent on funding from the Maine Legislature.