Spring Creek Correctional Center

Alaska's only maximum-security prison, in Seward — a state correctional center for men holding the state's highest-custody men, both pretrial and sentenced.

Overview

Spring Creek Correctional Center is a state prison for men operated by the Alaska Department of Corrections. It is in Seward, on the Kenai Peninsula on Alaska’s southern coast, about 125 miles south of Anchorage. The facility opened in 1988 and houses men at the highest custody levels in the state, with a capacity of about 535.

Alaska runs a unified corrections system, which means the same department operates both jail (pretrial) and prison (sentenced) functions; the state has no separate county jail system. As a result, Spring Creek holds both people who are awaiting trial and people who are serving sentences. Alaska assigns each person one of four custody levels — Community, Minimum, Medium, or Close — and a person’s custody level can change during incarceration. The custody level and housing unit determine whether visits are contact or non-contact, so families confirm the arrangement that applies to the specific person before a first visit.

What Makes the Spring Creek Correctional Center Different

Spring Creek Correctional Center is Alaska’s only maximum-security prison. It is the facility that houses the state’s highest-custody men, including those whose classification calls for close-custody confinement that other Alaska facilities are not set up to provide. Men whose security level requires the most secure placement in the state system are generally held here.

Because Alaska’s system is unified and the state has no county jails, Spring Creek holds both people awaiting trial and people serving sentences in the same facility. Visiting at Spring Creek is commonly arranged by appointment rather than on a fixed open schedule — the facility schedules visits in advance, so families confirm the current days, hours, and appointment process directly with the prison before traveling.

Visiting

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

Getting There and Parking

Spring Creek Correctional Center is at 3600 Bette Cato Avenue in Seward, in the Kenai Peninsula Borough on Alaska’s southern coast. Seward is reached from Anchorage by way of the Seward Highway, a drive of about 125 miles; the facility is east of town off Nash Road. Seward also has a small airport and is a stop on the Alaska Railroad, but most visitors arrive by road.

Parking is on site. 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

Seward has lodging, dining, fuel, and grocery stores, with a wider range of options in the Anchorage area to the north along the Seward Highway. Emergency medical care is available locally at Providence Seward Medical Center, with larger hospitals in the Anchorage area. Visitors traveling a long distance generally find the most lodging and dining choices in and around Anchorage and plan for the roughly two-and-a-half-hour drive south to the facility.

Mail

Alaska DOC does not use an off-site mail vendor. Incoming personal mail goes directly to Spring Creek Correctional Center in Seward, 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] Spring Creek Correctional Center P.O. Box 2109 Seward, AK 99664

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.