Indiana prison to put up fence to keep people out

MADISON, Ind. – A southern Indiana prison has an unusual problem: People keep wandering in from the outside.

The Madison Correctional Facility announced Wednesday it’s putting up a fence because joggers, bicyclists and even parents pushing baby strollers inadvertently enter the grounds of the minimum-security women’s prison.

“The facility has made several efforts to reduce this type of traffic through the facility by increasing signage, adding a landscape berm and sections of wrought-iron fencing around the perimeter,” a prison statement said. “Still, people often venture unknowingly into the middle of the correctional facility while leaving their vehicles unlocked.”

Keeping civilians off the prison grounds is a bigger problem than one might think.
“We have a huge problem with them,” prison spokeswoman Jennifer Saroka said. “Even though we have signs around our facility, people come wandering through and don’t realize where they are.”

The signs read “Madison Correctional Facility – Authorized Personnel Only.”
Making matters worse, a paved drive that is popular with joggers, walkers and cyclists runs alongside the prison. Next to the drive is a parking lot for the Heritage Trail of Madison, a fitness trail connecting Clifty Falls State Park with the downtown of the Ohio River city, settled in 1809 and today a popular tourist destination.

“There’s people that run over there all the time,” said Tom Pritchard, president of Heritage Trail.

“They just kind of jog on through,” Saroka said. “That’s the most common thing, the joggers and the bicyclists.”

It happens about twice a week, as recently as Wednesday morning, when a motorist drove a minivan onto the grounds.

“They were lost, turned around and drove off,” she said.

A fenceless prison presents security problems. Three inmates walked off in the last three years, only to be recaptured within 48 hours, Saroka said. Some visitors have tried to deliver cigarettes and other contraband.

“Our part of the campus is completely a nonsmoking facility,” Saroka said.
The prison grounds and its housing units formerly were connected to the adjacent Madison State Hospital, a psychiatric center.

Some other minimum-security prisons in Indiana also are fenceless, Saroka said.
The proposed 12-foot, chain-link fence with three strands of razor ribbon on top might detract from the beauty of the area, which also includes a nearby sports complex, but Mayor Tim Armstrong isn’t complaining. The fence will allow the prison to take in more prisoners and create as many as 50 new jobs.

“I am pleased that the area outside of the facility’s boundary will still be accessible to the public,” Armstrong said.