Answer Man: Construction at Craggy prison in Woodfin? What's going on with the site?
ASHEVILLE - Today's burning question concerns a construction project at one of the two Woodfin prisons.
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Question: What is the construction project that appears to be going on at the prison in Woodfin?
Answer: There are two prisons in Woodfin: the currently active Craggy Correctional, and the Old Craggy Prison, which was closed in the late 80s. While I clarified with the reader that the construction was visible at the new prison, I'll provide a short update on both.
When I reached out to Craggy Correctional Center Warden Travis Byrd to inquire about possible construction on his site, his answer was brief.
"Craggy does not have a current construction project going and has not in recent years," Byrd wrote May 9, but noted that Duke Energy had replaced "power poles on the property recently and we have done routine maintenance and preventative maintenance but no construction."
Indeed, a maintenance permit was filed in mid-January 2024 for the site, according to the Buncombe County planning portal. This could be what the reader was seeing.
However, it looks like another project could soon be underway at the facility, as the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction aims to install air conditioning in the building by 2026. The NC General Assembly approved $30 million toward 40 prisons with partial or no air conditioning — Craggy Correctional Center is one of them.
I reached out to NCDAC and Byrd again to receive a timeline on when this might happen, but didn't receive a response before deadline. I'll be circling back soon.
The prison is one of just two medium custody prisons in the state that currently does not have any air conditioning and is one of four active medium security prisons in NCDAC's Western North Carolina region, according to their website.
Old Craggy Prison is also set to receive upgrades to its laundry facility. Though closed in 1987, the property is still partially active, with a building adjacent to the old prison operating as a laundry facility under Correction Enterprises. That facility recently received new funding courtesy of the state government.
The General Assembly appropriated $742,000 toward "Laundry Wastewater/Stormwater Replacement" at the site in the 2023 Current Operations and Appropriations Act.
Old Craggy is one of six operating laundry locations that serve the cleaning needs of state prisons, according to the Correction Enterprises website. The 12,4000-square-foot facility, which is adjacent to the old prison building, employs eight full time staff and has 55 inmates actively working at the location.
The site processes 3.5 million pounds of laundry a year, according to Correction Enterprises.
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Will Hofmann is the Growth and Development Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Got a tip? Email him at WHofmann@citizentimes.com. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Answer Man: Construction at Craggy prison in Woodfin?
