The Western Kentucky Correctional Complex, located in Lyon County, is a 673 man medium security facility which includes a 180-bed minimum security unit. The minimum security inmates maintain a 2,300 acre farm and provide several community work details.
New Life Behavior: The New Life Behavior course is designed to assist anyone who is interested in
redirecting their lives.
The curriculum was designed for people who are experiencing changes in their lives. The Bible is used asa reference text, yet this is not a Bible course. Rather, the Bible is used as a guidebook to get the desired changes in behavior, attitudes, and concepts of the students. The purpose is to integrate what a person thinks, feels, and does, as illuminated by Bible texts. The goal is to help individuals reconcile themselves to God, family, and society in general.
The New Life Behavior class is an 18 month course and meets every Thursday, for two hours, at 12:00 noon.
Even Start: The purpose of this program is to help break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy by improving the educational opportunities of low income families by integrating early childhood education, adult basic education, parenting education, and life skills education into a unified family literacy program. Additionally, parent and child time will allow both parents to participate in the development of their children. Through increased education and improved parenting and life management skills, the institution is also hopeful of a more successful re-entry of the inmate into the community and reduced recidivism rate. It is recognized that education, parenting, and life skills management plays an integral part toward this goal.
Even Start specifically focuses on reading and improving reading skills in children and adults. The program attempts to remove all barriers that prevent the wife of an inmate from receiving adult education classes and from participating in parenting and life skills classes while at the same time having the opportunity to have quality parenting and child time together with the incarcerated fathers and their children.
The life skills component consists of consumer skills, personal finances, parenting skills, health and wellness, and communication skills. The sessions provide activities for self-esteem building and principles of creative and critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making.
Sex Offender Treatment Program: The Sex Offender Treatment program was established by law in 1986. Under the provisions of KSR 197, any individual convicted of a sex offense after July, 1986, must complete this program to be eligible for parole consideration. Participation is voluntary. A convicted sex offender may choose to serve out his sentence rather than participate.
The program is staffed by two (2) full-time counselors who also are responsible for conducting the program at the Kentucky State Penitentiary and the Community Program for Western Kentucky. There may be up to 150 individuals in the program at any given time. Treatment consists of initial psychological assessment, educational groups focusing on family patterns and human sexuality, and long-term group therapy. The group therapy is built around the relapse prevention model, and cognitive-behavioral approach that was originally developed for use with addicts. Therapy involves a series of tasks designed to help the individual understand the origins and dynamics of his offending behavior and to take full responsibility for his behavior, to develop a comprehensive strategy to avoid offending in the future and to come to realize the consequences of his behavior for his victim. It takes an average of two (2) years to complete the program. Individual therapy is also available.
Farm Program: The farm at WKCC has approximately 2300 acres and the farm operation includes approximately 17 registered bulls, 630 head of commercial cattle, 780 acres of row crops, 20 acres of garden crops, an apple orchard, and a composting operation, which composts approximately 13,000 gallons of garbage per month. The remaining acreage is used for hay and pasture.
Profits from the farming operations for 2003 were about $57,536.08 which was submitted to the General Fund.
Bridges to Freedom: The Bridges to Freedom program is currently offered to minimum-security unit. The program assists participates with their cognitive skills. It has ten (10) segments. The segments are: physical health, mental health, education, time management, spiritual, possessions, leisure time, financial, and relationships. Some segments, such as time management, financial and career, are given more than others. The program is a nine-week course meeting five nights per week for approximately three hours.
Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) Program: The Positive Mental Attitude Program. The program as derived from Napoleon Hill's book "Keys to Success", demonstrates the 17 principles of personal achievement. Through this program, the inmates learn such things as developing definiteness of purpose, creating a positive attitude, building self-discipline, organizing your time and energy, cultivating creative vision, budgeting your money, perfecting your personality, and making good health a habit.
Other programs include:
Alcohol Anonymous
Narcotics Anonymous
Pre-Treatment Alcohol-Drug Abuse Program