Western Kentucky Correctional Complex

Western Kentucky Correctional Complex (WKCC) is a minimum and medium-security prison located in Lyon County, near Fredonia, Kentucky. It opened in 1977 and had a prison population of 650 as of 2007. Prior to 2010, the facility held male inmates. Due to the 2010 conversion of the private Otter Creek Correctional Complex into a male facility, WKCC housed female inmates from 2010-2015 but is currently being converted back into a male facility (see below).

Split Into Two Separate Facilities

In 2015, Kentucky Department of Corrections Commissioner LaDonna Thompson announced that, due to a drop in female inmates, WKCC will be split into two separate facilities. The existing medium security unit will become a 470 secure custody unit for male inmates and will retain the Western Kentucky Correctional Complex name. The minimum security unit, which will retain the current facilities farm operation and community service detail, will be named the Ross-Cash Center (after Kentucky State Penitentiary corrections officer Patricia Ross and Western Kentucky Farm Center (now WKCC) corrections officer Fred Cash, both of whom were killed in the line of duty). This facility will house 200 female inmates. Non-minimum security female inmates will be transferred to the Kentucky Correctional Institute for Women in Peewee Valley and a visual barricade will be built between the WKCC and the Ross-Cash Center. The transition is scheduled to be completed in late September 2015, will result in no staff layoffs and will save the state approximately $700,000 per year.

External links

• History and Overview