The North Central Correctional Institute (NCCI) of the Massachusetts department of corrections is located on a twenty-acre piece of land, on a hillside near the Westminster town line and Gardner. The prison facility is located along colony road in Gardner, Massachusetts. Local transportation to the prison includes taxi and bus companies such as the Athol orange cab company, smiley’s taxi company, and the Vermont bus company (Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2011).
The prison is classified as a level 3 to 4 minimum/ medium level security prison. The facilities that house the north-central correctional institute used to be a hospital. This hospital used to be a colony for the mentally disturbed people who were physically strong and able-bodied to engage in constructive and other forms of menial jobs for the institution. This hospital facility was called the Gardner state colony and was established in 1902 (Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2011).
The Gardner state colony used to house a farmhouse and a livestock farm. Gardner state colony was a self-supporting farm in 1970. A phase-down of the Gardner state colony facilities was initiated by the Massachusetts governor and the Gardner facility was closed in 1975 to give way for the construction of the Northern Central Correctional Institution on the same site (Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2011).
The correctional facility was dedicated on June 18 1981 and it is classified as a medium-level security prison. The prison accepted its first ten inmates two weeks after dedication in July 1981. The Northern central correction institute has eighteen buildings and a perimeter fence topped with sharp razor wire. The perimeter fence is manned by three towers in the prison and foot patrols of the prison wardens (Commonwealth of Massachusets, 2011).
There has been expansive reconstruction and expansion of the prison facilities since its founding in 1981. The rapid expansion and rehabilitation of the prison facilities have enabled the prison to increase the number of inmates in the prison. In 1982, most of the important buildings within the prison were renovated such as Thompson hall. In 1983, the perimeter fence around the prison was enlarged and the additional buildings were also converted into prison facilities (Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2011).
In 1985, a great construction of the modular unit was established and made larger a year later. A kitchen, gymnasium, and several other constructions were also renovated, to make the plan of accommodating more inmates possible for the prison. As a result of continued expansion and rehabilitation of many buildings in the prison, the Northcentral correction institute houses over one thousand inmates currently (Vbulletin, 2011).
One of the buildings in the garden state colony locust house was not utilized by the prison facilities until the year 1983. From 1983, the locust house housed the steward’s offices and the identification offices of the prison. In 1986, a locust building was used to house the food and farm services of the prison until 1989. The locust building renovations began in 1990 at the total cost of 100, 000 dollars. Renovations on locust houses were stopped after the discovery of lead in the area around 1993. The renovations continued until 1998 despite a few stoppages through the years (Vbulletin, 2011).
This building was named after Timothy Beauregard a correction maintenance worker in Massachusetts in 1998. Locust has a thirty-bed capacity of maintaining the services to the corresponding local authorities. The minimum units outside crew perform community services supervised by a prison officer. The community service offered by the inmates to the communities saves the communities thousands of dollars every year (Vbulletin, 2011).
The Northern Central Correction Institute started working in collaboration with the National Education for Assistance Dog Services (NEADS) in 1998. Sister Pauline Quinn of Casco greatly contributed to the numerous programs in Massachusetts prisons this program aims at providing the deaf and people with disabilities with the dogs’ assistance. Very essential and important feelings are provided by these dogs such as a sense of independence and the most unchangeable feeling of freedom that is so important for each student. The Northern central correction institute was the first prison in the Massachusetts department of corrections to incorporate this program into the prison systems (Commonwealth of Massachusets, 2011).
This program is much in line with the visions of the department of corrections to assist the victims in rectifying their behaviors positively. The program is also meant to bring the efforts of the community closer, to assist in reforming the victims. The dogs undergo special training programs that would perfectly fit people with measured physical abilities (Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2011).
This collaboration between National education for assistance dog services and the Northern central correctional institute has expedited the dog training process and has also reduced the waiting period for new dogs in Massachusetts. NEADS utilizes this collaboration ratio in assisting the little puppies that experience difficulties in training. Many puppies have been trained through this program (Commonwealth of Massachusets, 2011).
Other programs run in the prison include AVAP, an acronym meaning alternatives to violence. This is a volunteer program that teaches inmates the ways of reducing violence by introducing alternate conflict resolution strategies, the prison also runs an emotional and healing program that fosters emotional and spiritual growth and promotes accountability and personal responsibility among the inmates (Vbulletin, 2011).
The groups of inmates are also provided by corresponding programs about HIV issues that make one of the most important problems nowadays. The Northern Central Correction institute also runs a music therapy program for inmates that are supervised by the staff of the prison for music comprehension and practice. There is also an introduction to treatment programs and youth outreach programs targeting a risk youth through making inmates offer a presentation of their experiences with drugs, peer pressure, crime and incarceration (Commonwealth of Australia, 2011).
The Northern central correctional institute also runs a relapse prevention program of helping the prisoners avoid the same crime in futures. This program seeks to identify highly risky situations that can cause relapse and also teach them the skills of addressing such situations. There are also self help programs which are volunteer facilitated programs of avoiding substance abuse and crime prevention and a family parenting services program for building parenting and family skills. This program is run by both volunteers and prisoner staff (Vbulleton, 2011).
The Northern central correctional institute at Gardner is run by the superintendent James samba and a team of dedicated prison staff. Volunteer staff also helps in running of the prisons especially on the running of the prisons program for rehabilitating prisoners back to the community (Vbulletin, 2011).
The north eastern correctional institute has a high capital budget for running the prisons. The cost of running of maintaining the 1000 inmates, the prison staff and the various programs for rehabilitating the prisoners back to the society Amounts to millions of dollars every year. For example the prisoner puppy program costs around 100 000 dollars every year (Vbulletin, 2011).
References
Common wealth of Massachusetts (2011). NCCI/Gardner. Web.
Common Wealth of Massachusetts. (2011) NCCI Gardner: Programs Available at the Facility. Web.
VBulletin solutions. (2011). North central correctional institution at Gardner (NCCI/gardner) profile. Web.