Ketchikan Correctional Center

A small mixed-custody Alaska DOC facility in Ketchikan, on an island in Southeast Alaska reachable mainly by air or ferry, holding both pretrial and sentenced men and women.

Overview

Ketchikan Correctional Center is a state correctional facility operated by the Alaska Department of Corrections. It is in Ketchikan, in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough at the southern end of Southeast Alaska. The facility is one of the smaller institutions in the state system and holds both men and women.

Alaska runs a unified corrections system: there is no separate county jail system, so most Alaska DOC facilities hold both people awaiting trial (pretrial) and people serving sentences. Ketchikan Correctional Center holds both groups. Alaska DOC assigns one of four custody levels — Community, Minimum, Medium, or Close — based on an assessment of risk and needs, and a person’s custody level can change during incarceration. The custody level and housing assignment affect whether a visit is contact or non-contact, so families confirm the arrangement that applies to the specific person before a first visit.

What Makes the Ketchikan Correctional Center Different

Ketchikan Correctional Center serves the southern part of Southeast Alaska. Because Alaska’s system is unified, the facility holds both pretrial and sentenced people in the same site rather than functioning as a sentenced-only prison.

Ketchikan is on an island, and the community is reachable mainly by air or by the state ferry — there is no road connecting it to the rest of Alaska. That geography shapes in-person visiting: families traveling from elsewhere in the state generally arrive by plane or ferry, and travel cost and scheduling are larger factors than at facilities on the road system. Alaska DOC superintendents can approve a Special Visit on a case-by-case basis for visitors traveling a long distance; families ask the facility about that option when distance is an obstacle.

Visiting

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

Getting There and Parking

Ketchikan Correctional Center is at 1201 Schoenbar Road in Ketchikan, in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough. Ketchikan is on Revillagigedo Island in Southeast Alaska and is not connected to the state road system. Most visitors reach the community by air, through Ketchikan International Airport, or by the Alaska Marine Highway System ferry; the airport is on a separate island, with a short ferry shuttle to the main community. Once in Ketchikan, the facility is reached by local road.

Visitors confirm current entry procedures, the visitor-processing location, and what may be brought onto the grounds with the facility before arriving, because electronic devices and personal items are generally not permitted inside the visiting area.

Nearby Services

Ketchikan has lodging, dining, fuel, and grocery options in town, with availability that can tighten during the summer visitor season. Emergency and hospital medical care is available locally. Because the community is on an island, visitors traveling from outside Ketchikan plan air or ferry travel and any overnight stay in advance, as same-day round trips are often not practical.

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] Ketchikan Correctional Center 1201 Schoenbar Road Ketchikan, AK 99901

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.