Status open Phone +1 270-388-9781 Opened 1977 | Security class mixed Capacity 650 | |
Location 374 New Bethel Church Road
Fredonia, Kentucky Managed by Kentucky Department of Corrections Address 374 New Bethel Church Rd, Fredonia, KY 42411, USA Similar State Penitenti, Caldwell County Jail, Crittenden County Jail, Christian County Jail, Lyon County Clerk Co | ||
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 to 2015. In 2015, WKCC split into two separate prisons and the main WKCC was converted back into a male facility (see below).
Split into two separate facilities
In 2015, then-Kentucky Department of Corrections Commissioner LaDonna Thompson announced that, due to a drop in female inmates, WKCC was to be split into two separate facilities. The existing medium security unit became a 470-bed secure custody unit for male inmates and retained the Western Kentucky Correctional Complex name. The minimum security unit, which retained the original facilities farm operation and community service detail, was 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 houses 200 female inmates. Non-minimum security female inmates were transferred to the Kentucky Correctional Institute for Women in Peewee Valley and a visual barricade was to be built between the WKCC and the Ross-Cash Center. The transition was completed in late September 2015, resulted in no staff layoffs and is expected to save the state approximately $700,000 per year.