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Alaska Department of Corrections
Kenai Peninsula Borough - State Prison - Alaska
Spring Creek Correctional Center

Status: Active, opened in 1988

Location: Seward, Alaska

Address: 3600 Bette Cato, Seward, Alaska 99664

Mailing Address:

Spring Creek Correctional Center
3600 Bette Cato
Seward, AK 99664

Phone Number: 907-224-8200; inmates cannot receive phone calls                

Fax Number: 907-224-8062; inmates cannot receive faxes

Offender Gender: Male

Security Level: Maximum (Level III)

Warden: William Lapinskas

Employees: Over 200

Distinguishing Feature: Spring Creek Correctional Center is the Alaska Department of Correction’s largest provider of mental health services, and it houses some of the most dangerous inmates in the Alaska Department of Correction prison system.

Spring Creek Correctional Center is a maximum security facility that primarily houses inmates serving long-term services.  However, it also houses inmates serving shorter sentences and, therefore, focuses on rehabilitation.  The design of the prison is a decentralized campus design, which has three housing units, an administrative support complex, and a recreation field.

The majority of inmates at Spring Creek are serving long-term or life sentences, but a subset of the inmates are serving shorter three to ten year sentences.  Regardless of whether inmates are serving short or long sentences, they are given rehabilitation opportunities.

The living conditions at Spring Creek Correctional Center are not notable among prisons.  While there have been assaults and even murders inside the prison, it is not considered an exceptionally violent or dangerous prison for the inmates.  In fact, it has a reputation as a kinder and gentler correctional facility.  When compared to other prisons with populations of violent criminals, Spring Creek actually has lower rates of violence than one would expect.  However, there have been incidents at Spring Creek that threaten both prisoner and guard safety, including a near-riot in 2014.  Despite these incidents, assaults, and murders, the prison is still considered a good place to do time and to work as a prison guard.

This reputation may be due, in part, to its isolation.  The prison is in a very isolated area and is surrounded by national parks.  It is a 30-acre facility with three different housing units and a large outdoor recreational facility.  There are also indoor recreational facilities, which is critical because of the harsh winter weather.  Spring Creek Correctional Center was featured in the television program Lockup: Spring Creek, which detailed the living conditions for the average inmates at the facility.  Like many other prisons, the administrative segregation center at Spring Creek Correctional Center has inmates that are locked up in their cells 23 hours a day.  Spring Creek also has a zero-tolerance policy for any infractions.

            One of the most noticeable thing about the facility is that, unlike many other correctional facilities, the inmates do not appear to self-segregate along racial lines to the same extent as they do at many other prisons.  In fact, it is common to see prisoners of different races hanging out with one another. 

            Another notable difference in the facility is that even inmates with long sentences are provided with rehabilitation opportunities.  In many prison facilities, rehabilitation is limited to inmates who are likely to re-enter society.  However, this ignores the fact that prison is a society and that the same skills that can make inmates more productive members of society outside of prison can also be useful in a correctional facility setting. 

Spring Creek Correctional Center offers a variety of rehabilitation programs, including: ABE (adult basic education)/GED educational programs, parenting classes, cognitive skills classes, anger management, substance abuse treatment programs, and prerelease programs.   ABE programs are comparable to vocational training programs, which build upon existing knowledge and educational background and help prepare inmates for re-entry into the workplace.  The educational programs also allow the inmates to earn associates degrees as well as take courses preparing them to test for their commercial driver’s license (CDL). Spring Creek also provides mental health services for inmates with identified mental health issues. 

 

Although Spring Creek is a relatively new facility, it has a very colorful history.  The fact that it was one of the prisons featured on Lockup has made some of this history well-known throughout the United States.  There have been two murders at the facility.  Carl Abuhl killed his cellmate, Gregory Beaudoin.  Convicted murder John Carlin III, who was a co-conspirator in a lurid murder, was beaten to death.  However, the most dramatic prison violence actually occurred outside of the prison.  In July 2015, a woman came to the prison’s gates, armed with a gun and demanding that they release the murderers.  When the prison staff did not immediately respond, the woman shot herself in the head. 

Serial killer Robert Hanson, who was convicted of killing a number of women in the Anchorage, Alaska area.  

Locate an Inmate: Unlike many other state prison systems, the Alaska Department of Corrections does not maintain its own online inmate locator tool.  There are a number of private services that claim to be inmate locators, but they may not have information on every prisoner.  However, if you are the victim of a crime, the Victim Information and Notification Everyday (VINE) tool can help you ascertain whether or not an offender is still incarcerated and at which facility.  While VINE is geared towards victim usage, it appears that it could be used by non-victims to help locate inmates.

Visit an Inmate

Visitation Hours:

Maximum Custody
Monday - Thursday 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM (secure visitation)
Friday - Sunday 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM (contact visits)
Holidays - 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM (contact visits)

Segregated (available for immediate family only)
Sunday - Saturday 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM (secure visitation)

General Population
Monday - Sunday 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM (secure visitations)
Friday - Sunday 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM (contact visits)
Holidays - 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM (contact visits)

Send Money to an Inmate   At Spring Creek Correctional Facility, inmates can receive money to deposit in their Offender Trust Accounts through the regular mail system.  Inmates cannot receive cash, but can receive money in the form of money orders, certified checks, and cashier’s checks.  These checks must include the name and address of the sender and the name of the prisoner.

Receive Calls from an Inmate

Inmate Mailing Address:    

Inmate Name and Inmate ID
Spring Creek Correctional Center
3600 Bette Cato
Seward, AK 99664

 


Year Built or Opened: 1988 Warden or Supervisor: William Lapinskas Daily Inmate Count: 500 Total Capacity: 525 Security Level(s): maximum (level III)

3600 Bette Cato
Seward, Alaska 99664

Phone Number(s): 907-224-8200
Fax Number: 907-224-8062

3600 Bette Cato
Seward, Alaska 99664