Faulkner, a retired supervisor of the U.S. Department of Justice in Virginia, noted that the institution was extremely clean for a facility of its age, adding that he was particularly impressed with the response of one inmate he interviewed during the audit who wanted to know “how are we doing?” referring to both staff and inmates. This shows that both staff and inmates care about the facility, he said. In all of his years in auditing, he said, he had never had an inmate ask this question.
Kentucky Department of Corrections Commissioner LaDonna Thompson also congratulated the Northpoint employees. “I’m very proud of the staff at Northpoint Training Center,” said Thompson. “This score speaks volumes about their level of commitment to the job. To receive a perfect score requires a continuous day-to-day effort by all staff members. It is not something that you can just throw together at the last minute. This achievement is another example of the pride the staff have in working at NTC.”
Warden Steve Haney said the perfect score reflects the dedication of both staff and inmates and could not have been accomplished without their efforts. He said he was proud of his staff to be able to score a 100, considering the events of the last two years.
On Aug. 21, 2009, inmates rioted at the prison, starting fires that burned six structures, including the kitchen, canteen and multipurpose buildings. Work started last October on an $18 million rebuilding project expected to be finished in May 2012.
Northpoint has continued to house about 600 inmates in three dormitories, while the other three housing units are used for other functions. The prison is expected to return to its pre-riot population of 1,256 once construction is complete.
ACA consists of over 500 national standards that cover security, operational and programming aspects of a prison and require constant monitoring and quality control checks. Each prison is audited by ACA every three years and has an inter-departmental audit (program security review) every year. Kentucky has been a member of ACA since the early 1980s.
