Anvil Mountain Correctional Center

A mixed-custody Alaska DOC correctional center in Nome that holds men and women — both pretrial and sentenced — for the Bering Strait and Northwest Alaska region.

Overview

Anvil Mountain Correctional Center is a state correctional center operated by the Alaska Department of Corrections. It is in Nome, on the Seward Peninsula in northwest Alaska, and serves the Bering Strait and surrounding Northwest Alaska region. The facility holds men and women across a range of custody levels and has a capacity of roughly 115.

Alaska runs a unified corrections system: the state has no separate county jail system, so its correctional centers hold both people awaiting trial and people serving sentences. Anvil Mountain holds both groups. Classification assigns each person a custody level — Community, Minimum, Medium, or Close — and people serving longer sentences are often transferred to larger institutions elsewhere in the state. The custody level and housing unit determine whether a visit is contact or non-contact, so families confirm the arrangement that applies to a specific person before a first visit.

What Makes the Anvil Mountain Correctional Center Different

Anvil Mountain is the Alaska DOC facility for the Bering Strait and Northwest Alaska region, taking people from Nome, Kotzebue, and the surrounding communities. As in the rest of Alaska’s unified system, it holds both unsentenced (pretrial) and sentenced people in the same facility, and it serves as a booking and intake point for the region.

The defining practical factor for visitors is geography. Nome is not connected to Alaska’s road system and is reached mainly by plane, which can make in-person visiting expensive and require advance planning. For families traveling a long distance, the Alaska DOC has a case-by-case Special Visit provision that a superintendent can approve for longer or off-hours visits; ask the facility about it well ahead of time. Alaska does not have an established video-visiting program, so confirm what options exist directly with the facility.

Visiting

The statewide AK DOC rules above — the approved visitor list, the dress code, ID, and item limits — apply at the Anvil Mountain Correctional Center. The facility’s own arrangements:

Getting There and Parking

Anvil Mountain Correctional Center is at 1810 Center Creek Rd. in Nome, in the Nome Census Area on the Seward Peninsula. Nome is not on Alaska’s road system: there is no highway connection to Anchorage, Fairbanks, or the rest of the state, and most visitors arrive by scheduled commercial flight into Nome (Ralph Wien Memorial) Airport. Within Nome, the facility is reached by local road.

Because travel involves a flight and, for many families, an overnight stay, visitors plan well ahead and confirm the visiting schedule with the facility before booking. Confirm current entry procedures, the visitor-processing location, and what may be brought onto the grounds with the facility before arriving, because personal items are restricted inside.

Nearby Services

Nome is a regional hub for northwest Alaska and has hotels, restaurants, grocery stores, and a regional hospital, but the range of options is limited and prices reflect the remote location. Visitors flying in for a visit generally arrange lodging in Nome in advance, particularly in summer, when tourism and events can fill rooms. There are no nearby road-accessible cities, so families plan fuel, food, and overnight stays around what is available in Nome itself.

Mail

Alaska DOC does not use an off-site mail vendor. Incoming personal mail goes directly to the facility, where mail staff open and inspect it for contraband before delivery. Address personal mail with the person’s full name and prisoner number, the facility name, and the facility’s mailing address:

[Prisoner’s full name and number] Anvil Mountain Correctional Center 1810 Center Creek Rd. Nome, AK 99762

Use a plain white envelope and white paper, and write only in blue or black ink or pencil. Mail without a complete return address that includes the sender’s name is destroyed. Greeting cards must be commercially produced, single-fold, on standard card stock, and no larger than 6 by 8 inches. Photographs must be printed on plain white or photographic paper and unaltered. Stickers, labels, glitter, tape, and anything attached with adhesive are not allowed (postal-service labels are an exception), and sexually explicit material is prohibited.

Legal and other privileged mail (for example, mail with an attorney) goes to the facility marked “Privileged” and is handled separately. Books, magazines, newspapers, and other publications must be ordered from an approved vendor and shipped directly to the facility — a family member can place the order, but the person must have funds to pay for it in advance. Packages are accepted only from approved vendors through the commissary; friends and family cannot send gift packages. Contact the facility for its current approved-vendor list.

Learn More

• Visiting an Alaska prison — Approved visitor lists, the per-facility scheduling and appointment norms, dress code, ID, and what to expect at remote facilities.
• Sending mail in Alaska — How to address personal mail to the facility, the white-envelope rules, and how to order books, publications, and packages from approved vendors.
• Phone calls and video in Alaska — Setting up a Securus AdvanceConnect account, how calls are billed, free monthly calls, and the rules on three-way and forwarded calls.
• Sending money in Alaska — How to put money on an Offender Trust Account in person or by mail, who is allowed to deposit, accepted forms, and the monthly limit.
• Medical care in Alaska prisons — How health, dental, and mental-health care work in DOC facilities, co-pay amounts, and how to request care.
• Intake, classification, and transfers in Alaska — The booking process, the four custody levels, and how people are housed in Alaska’s unified jail-and-prison system.