Perceptions of prison

It isn’t a dungeon and it isn’t a country club, despite what different people might think.

Also, a great majority of the inmates at Rayburn Correctional Center (RCC) in Angie live in dormitories, not tiny, barred cells off long stark corridors. And they don’t just sit around all day. They have regular jobs.

Anyone unfamiliar with the local prison might imagine an atmosphere of desolate or even violent suppression, a dark environment with roiling undercurrents of diabolical tendency in search of an outlet. Of course, there are also those who imagine coddled criminals kept in comfort, fed, educated and getting medical attention some of their victims cannot afford, all on the taxpayer’s dime.

In reality, life at RCC is quite different from what many people think, said Warden Bobby Tanner.

“I’m sure it’s not like people’s perceptions because a lot of people’s perceptions are based on what they see on TV,” he said. “Some of it is true, I guess. There are inmates that live in cells, depending on the level of their custody. But the majority live in open barracks like I perceive people do in the military.

“It’s clean. And we try to keep it well-lit for obvious reasons. It’s not a country club by any stretch. On the other hand, it’s not a dark, dank dungeon.”

In an attempt to help shed some light on what life is really like “behind the fence” for those who come and go or stay for extended periods of time there, the Daily News will undertake an occasional series of stories highlighting different aspects.

First, the basics.

B.B. “Sixty” Rayburn Correctional Center opened as the Washington Correctional Institute in 1983, and renamed for the former state senator and Washington Parish resident who was instrumental in its opening, in 2006. The state prison covers 1,132 acres, 45 of which are within the fenced compound.

The medium security facility houses a maximum capacity of 1,132 inmates, most of whom must be eligible for release within 30 years. The population reportedly stays at near capacity.

The inmates are housed in four dormitories named Wind, Rain, Snow and Sleet, and in a maximum custody cellblock known as Sun. Each dormitory unit holds 66 prisoners. Wind, Rain and Snow are each comprised of four units. Sleet has two units plus four cellblock tiers that are used for administrative segregation, disciplinary detention or isolation and extended lockdown.

Sun, which houses up to 208 inmates, also holds those who have been placed in extended lockdown. One tier is used for administrative segregation and disciplinary detention or isolation. The remaining tiers house “working cellblock” inmates.

All physically able inmates are assigned jobs, and they can earn the right to better jobs through good behavior.

While the inmates provide most of the labor at RCC, between 380 and 400 employees, most of them corrections officers, like guards, but also health care, office and other workers, have jobs at the prison. RCC is one of the major employers in the parish.

The prison was accredited through the American Correctional Association (ACA) in 1993, and has earned re-accreditation every three years since.