WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Prisons said a site in the Roxana community of Letcher County is the “preferred alternative” for a new medium security prison and would have fewer environmental impacts than other locations.

What You Need To Know

  • The Federal Bureau of Prisons said a site in the Roxana community of Letcher County is the “preferred alternative” for a new medium security prison 

  • In a draft environmental impact statement issued last week, the agency said county leaders and the public have expressed “consistent, continuous, and unwavering support”

  • Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., has long lobbied for the project

  • The public can comment on the Federal Bureau of Prisons' draft environmental impact statement by April 15

In a draft environmental impact statement issued last week, the agency said county leaders and the public have expressed “consistent, continuous and unwavering support.”

The assessment was a setback for the coalition Building Community Not Prisons, which said constructing the prison would hurt the environment, lead to unnecessary incarceration and use money that would be better spent on housing following the deadly floods in Kentucky nearly two years ago.  

Eastern Kentucky University Professor Judah Schept is part of the group and authored a book on prisons in Central Appalachia.

“People recognize that the prison will not necessarily bring any kind of economic development,” he said. “People recognize that following the devastating 2022 floods, that the prison would not address any of the climate or infrastructure or housing needs that the county desperately, desperately requires and desires.”

Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., has long lobbied for the project and obtained more than $500 million for it.

He said it will add more than 300 jobs and create economic development opportunities.

“If this new prison facility isn’t built in Letcher County, it will be built in another state, and Kentucky will lose out on the funding and opportunities that come with it,” Rogers said Friday in a statement.

“Clay, Martin and McCreary counties in eastern Kentucky, where prisons were built and opened in 1992, 2003 and 2004, those counties remain three of the poorest counties in one of the poorest congressional districts in the United States,” Schept said. 

Jeffery Justice, executive director of the economic development organization Pine Mountain Partnership, said he is in full support of the development of a prison in Letcher County.

“I wish that I could find another project that would bring up to 300 jobs that pay the same wages as the bureau states that these people will be paid,” he said.

The public can comment on the draft environmental impact statement by April 15, and a public meeting is scheduled for March 28 at Letcher County Central High School.

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