Spring Creek Correctional Center is an

Alaska Department of Corrections The Department of Corrections of the state of Alaska is an agency of the state government responsible for corrections. The department manages institutions, parole and probation. The current commissioner is Jen Winkelman. The agency has its headqu ...

maximum security prison Maximum security prisons and supermax prisons are grades of high security level used by prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility wher ...

for men located in

Seward, Alaska Seward (Alutiiq language, Alutiiq: ; Denaʼina language, Dena'ina: ''Tl'ubugh'') is an incorporated home rule city in Alaska, United States. Located on Resurrection Bay, a fjord of the Gulf of Alaska on the Kenai Peninsula, Seward is situated ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

.Spring Creek Correctional Center
."

. Retrieved on August 15, 2010. The prison is located approximately south of

Anchorage Anchorage, officially the Municipality of Anchorage, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alaska. With a population of 291,247 at the 2020 census, it contains nearly 40 percent of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolita ...

. The prison is located on about of land surrounded by

national park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

s. The prison capacity consists of over 500 inmates and 97 correctional officers. Built as a decentralized campus, the prison construction was completed in 1988 at a cost of $44,678,000. A large portion of the prisoner population consists of "hard core" felons who committed violent crimes, such as murder. The Alaska DOC says that these prisoners "will probably spend the rest of their life in prison." Spring Creek also houses prisoners who committed less serious crimes like assault and burglary and usually have sentences from three years to ten years.

Operational history

In the prison's history, there have been two murders inside the prison, one escape and at least one failed escape plot.

Murders

In 2004, Spring Creek inmate Carl Abuhl, already incarcerated for another murder, killed his cellmate Gregory Beaudoin. Abuhl was convicted of Beaudoin's murder and sentenced to an additional 30 years in prison. In 2008, convicted murderer John Carlin III was beaten to death in Spring Creek. Carlin was the alleged co-conspirator in the case of Mechele Linehan, a former stripper convicted in the death of her former fiancé Kent Leppink.

Escapes and escape attempts

An escape involving two inmates from Spring Creek occurred in 1994; both were subsequently recaptured. A second, unrelated escape plot in 2001 was unsuccessful.

2015 incident

In July 2015 a distraught woman from

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

approached the prison gates with a gun and demanded that "murderers" be freed. She proceeded to shoot herself in the head when the prison did not immediately comply. Although prison staff responded and applied

CPR Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure used during cardiac or respiratory arrest that involves chest compressions, often combined with artificial ventilation, to preserve brain function and maintain circulation until sp ...

, the woman died from the head wound within a few hours. Her exact motivations or possible relationship to inmates at Spring Creek are unknown.

Notable inmates

Robert Hansen Robert Christian Boes Hansen (February 15, 1939 – August 21, 2014), also known as the Butcher Baker, was an American serial killer active in Anchorage, Alaska, between 1972 and 1983, abducting, raping and murdering at least seventeen wome ...

, a serial killer convicted of killing numerous women in or near

Anchorage, Alaska Anchorage, officially the Municipality of Anchorage, is the List of cities in Alaska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alaska. With a population of 291,247 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it contains nearly 40 percent of ...

. *Evan Ramsey, perpetrator of the

Bethel Regional High School Bethel Regional High School (BRHS) is a public high school in Bethel, Alaska, United States, and part of the Lower Kuskokwim School District Lower Kuskokwim School District (LKSD), or Bethel Public Schools, is a school district headquartered ...

shooting in Bethel, Alaska that occurred on February 19, 1997. His story was profiled on A&E's

Kids Who Kill ''Kids Who Kill: Confronting Our Culture of Violence'' is a 1998 non-fiction book by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and Evangelical Christian author and pastor George Grant. The book is a response to the school shootings carried out by ...

MSNBC documentary

Spring Creek was profiled in an

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

entitled '' Lockup: Spring Creek, Alaska''. Numerous Spring Creek inmates were profiled, including Carl Abuhl, John Bright and Cordell Boyd.

References

External links

Official site
{{State prisons in Alaska Prisons in Alaska Buildings and structures in Seward, Alaska Government buildings completed in 1988 1988 establishments in Alaska Prisons completed in the 1980s