Nearly five years after construction on the new Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution began, the $128 million facility is housing its first inmates.

So far, the Wyoming Department of Corrections has moved 151 inmates to the institution. A total of 75 inmates were transferred from the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins Jan. 13. They were followed by another group of 76 inmates three days later on Jan. 16.

WMCI Warden Mike Murphy said the transfer of the first prisoners went through intake with no major glitches.

“Everything went exceptionally smooth,” Murphy said. “We had a plan in place and executed it last Wednesday. Looking at how that plan went, we made a few changes and had our second group of inmates come through on Saturday.”

The inmates transferred in these first two groups are all classified as minimum or medium security inmates.

Each group of inmates was transported from Rawlins by Department of Correction vans and a bus and went through the intake process.  Upon arrival, each inmate was subject to an initial body search, a housing assignment was made, a full medical evaluation was conducted by medical staff, and then the inmate met with his caseworker to learn the schedule of the first few days in the WMCI. Corrections staff from the Wyoming Women’s Center in Lusk and the Wyoming Honor Conservation Camp helped with the transport.

Murphy said he also personally talked with the inmates who were coming through intake to answer questions they had.

“With the arrival of the first inmates at WMCI we have begun to undertake our ‘real’ work about offering inmates opportunities to change their lives so that they can become productive citizens and safe neighbors for all of us when they are released from prison,” he said.

Murphy said that over the next several weeks, more “waves” of inmates would be transported through the jail and processed. He also said that the process of bringing many of the more than 200 Wyoming inmates being housed in other states would be “beginning very soon.”

When full, WMCI will house around 700 medium security male inmates. Prison staff said the task of filling the prison to capacity could take several months before it is complete.