DATE: Friday, August 8, 1997                TAG: 9708080614

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

DATELINE: BUTNER                            LENGTH:   33 lines

STATE HOLDS RIBBON-CUTTING RITES FOR $43 MILLION YOUTH INSTITUTION

The new Polk Youth Institution is behind schedule and won't open for inmates until the fall, but state officials have held a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The ceremony was held Wednesday at the $43 million facility that will replace the prison in Raleigh. The Raleigh prison has a history of violent uprisings and severe crowding.

``We're just getting ready to start the hard work,'' said Correction Secretary Mack Jarvis. ``I remember dark cells and growing up hearing about chain gangs. We've come a long way into a productive and reasonable era.''

The new prison will house as many 1,076 male prisoners ages 18 to 21, more than three times the nearly 350 prisoners now held at the Raleigh prison.

It also will feature the state's first super max unit, which will handle up to 100 of the most violent criminals in the prison's age group.

The prisoners will either work or attend school. They also will receive ethics lessons, Jarvis said, because ``we can't turn these people out as bad as we've received them.''

Polk Superintendent George Currie said he hoped to open the Butner prison by October, but employees will move in sooner. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Polk Youth Institution at Butner will replace the prison in

Raleigh, which has a history of violent uprisings and severe

crowding.

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