Plan for new federal prison in Eastern Ky. is moving ahead. Here’s your chance to weigh in.

Plans for a new federal prison in Letcher County are once again moving forward, after years of starts and stops.

A draft environmental impact statement, which is required by law as an assessment of how the prison would affect the natural environment as well as the nearby community, was released Friday.

Now, a period for public comment has begun.

The facility would house just over 1,400 inmates, including 1,152 people at a medium-security federal correctional institution and 256 people at an adjacent minimum-security federal prison camp, according to a news release from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

The proposed location is at a former coal mining site in Roxana, about 10 miles west of Whitesburg.

Congressman Harold “Hal” Rogers applauded the plans, saying he’s pleased that the environmental impact statement confirms that the proposed site of the new prison meets federal requirements.

“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 in a news release.

Rogers’ release said he has secured more than $500 million in federal funding for a new federal prison, which is needed to address “safety, modernization needs and overcrowding.”

“Building a medium-security prison and camp in Letcher County will add more than 300 jobs in our region, employing people from surrounding counties, and providing other economic development opportunities,” Rogers said.

Rogers said the federal prison system already has more than 1,300 employees in his district, which brings in more than $83.7 million in wages to the area each year.

Plans for a new federal prison in Letcher county have been under discussion since 2006, when Congress authorized the Board of Prisons to begin the studies necessary for the project.

In the years that followed, the government went through the process of completing multiple environmental impact statements.

The director of the Bureau of Prisons approved building a $500 million prison in Letcher County in May 2018 but withdrew the approval in July 2019 after a lawsuit by the Abolitionist Law Center, which argued on behalf of inmates that the Bureau of Prisons hadn’t provided information about the project to inmates and that the project would damage the environment and expose inmates at the facility to toxic pollutants at the old mine site.

The Bureau of Prisons responded that it had done a good environmental assessment and did not anticipate environmental threats to inmates or employees. However, the agency later withdrew approval for the project, citing new information “which may be relevant to the environmental analysis.”

In 2022, the bureau again began pursuing plans for a new prison in Letcher County.

The environmental impact statement says the plan to build at Roxana has had “consistent, continuous, and unwavering support expressed by Letcher County’s elected representatives, community leaders, members of local institutions and businesses, and the general public.”

The 45-day review period for public comment on the project began Friday and ends April 15.

Until then, comments can be submitted through the project website.

Written comments can also be submitted by emailing kshudson@bop.gov or by mail sent to Kimberly S. Hudson, Chief, Construction and Environmental Review Section, Federal Bureau of Prisons, 320 First Street, NW, Room 901-5 West, Washington, DC, 20534.

A public meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. March 28 at Letcher County Central High School in Whitesburg. People can attend in person or via Zoom.

A final environmental impact statement is expected to be completed by May, and a final decision on the project would be announced by July, according to a schedule published by the Bureau of Prisons.

Herald-Leader reporter Bill Estep contributed to this story.