Missouri Prison System Could Move Officer Training from Classroom to Real-World Setting

Governor Parson is proposing to reopen a closed prison in northwest Missouri’s Cameron and turn it into a training academy for correctional officers. In 2019, the state closed the Crossroads Correctional Center and moved the inmates and workers mostly to the other prison in Cameron. During a House Budget Committee hearing, Joplin Republican Lane Roberts, a former Missouri Department of Public Safety Director, says he endorses the plan…

“The idea is to give the officers basically a real setting experience so that when they do find themselves faced with this, they will know not only what to do but have some sense of the surroundings they’ll be operating in. For whatever it’s worth, I have to tell you I think this is an excellent use of any of our surplus,” says Roberts.

The proposal is part of the governor’s $34.1 billion budget proposal for the fiscal year beginning in July.