The Wyoming Department of Corrections (WDOC) is a state agency of Wyoming that operates adult correctional facilities. It is headquartered in Suite 100 of the 1934 Wyott Drive building in Cheyenne.[1]
History
Wyoming entered the Union in 1890. As a territory, inmates were held at the Wyoming Territorial Prison at Laramie. Work began for a state prison at Rawlins in 1888, but the facility did not open until 1901. The building had 104 cells and housed both male and female inmates. In 1909, female inmates were transported to Colorado to serve their sentences. In 1950 an additional wing was added that featured running water and solitary confinement cells. This jail was in use until 1980. when the present state penitentiary was built.[2]
In 1912, a riot resulted in the escape of twenty-seven inmates and the death of one local man.[3]
A gas chamber was added in 1936. Five men were killed there. The original cell block gained running water in 1978.[4]
In November 1990 Wyoming voters approved a constitutional amendment that abolished the Wyoming State Board of Charities and Reform. The institutions of the former state agency were divided and given to other agencies; the Department of Corrections, created in 1991, took responsibility of the adult correctional facilities and also absorbed the adult parole functions of the Wyoming Department of Probation and Parole.[5]
The system is overcrowded. Starting in 2019, it has leased prison beds from a private facility in Mississippi. Female prisoners are housed in county jails or one of the state's male prisons because of lack of capacity. Average staff turnover in recent years has been about 23%. The state has cut 180 staff positions from the system since 2011.[6]
This template pertains only to agencies that handle sentenced felons (with sentences over 1-2 years). In many states, pre-trial detainees, persons convicted of misdemeanors, and felons sentenced under state law to less than one year are held in county jails instead of state prisons.
