CHEYENNE - The Wyoming Department of Corrections (WDOC) has chosen GSG Architecture Team out of Casper and Reilly Johnson Architecture of Denver as the group who will be providing conceptual drawings and cost-only estimates for prison expansion projects proposed at existing prisons under Senate File 16.

Senate File 16, which was passed during the 2003 legislative session, calls for 59 additional beds at the Wyoming Honor Farm (WHF) in Riverton and 108 beds at the Wyoming Women's Center (WWC) in Lusk. Senate File 16 also calls for the expansion of education, industry and programming space at the Wyoming State Penitentiary (WSP) in Rawlins, WHF and WWC, in addition to increased residential intensive substance abuse treatment beds.

Bob Lampert, director of the WDOC stated, "We are pleased to have GSG join us as we begin to plan for and cost out the expansion of existing prisons in Wyoming. GSG and Reilly Johnson have formed a very experienced team of architects, engineers, correctional and security systems specialists, consultants and a proven cost estimator to guide us in this process."

He added that he firmly believes this group is the right team to bring Wyoming the highest quality and best value during this phase of the expansion process. The WDOC hopes to have this first phase completed in time for the upcoming legislative session.

"The expansions proposed at each of the existing institutions," Lampert continued, "will allow them to increase their service potential to the State of Wyoming and to the people we incarcerate. As we return Wyoming inmates to Wyoming, we cannot just build more beds. We absolutely must build the space necessary to provide the types of quality treatment and training programs that have been proven to make a difference, such as education, vocational training, work skills development, substance abuse treatment, relationship and parenting skills, and cognitive programming."

Lampert explained that the WDOC can't just lock people away and hope that time and maturity will somehow magically transform them. "The department's mission requires us to actively provide offenders opportunities to become law-abiding citizens and these expansion projects will allow us to do an even better job of that. I think GSG understands that vision and will help us design the space necessary to do so both efficiently and effectively," Lampert said.