Salinas Valley Prison Mental Health Facility

SALINAS VALLEY STATE PRISON

This OSHPD 4 compliant, 64-bed treatment facility provides 31,100 SF of housing space in addition to roughly 36,000 SF mental health treatment facility located in Salinas Valley State Prison.

The facility also accommodates special needs inmates with a stand-alone housing unit and two retrofitted 180-bed housing units within a secured perimeter. The facility incorporated a wide range of sustainability strategies and cost-saving measures resulting in the first California prison to achieve LEED Silver Certification.

Key design features include a plumbing system that uses vacuum pressure to move waste, rather than the traditional water intensive gravity plumbing designs. The result cut the water usage by more than half. The other advantage of this system is that it removes a potential source of mischief from the inmates. Interconnecting pipes allow inmates to communicate with each other, pass contraband between cells and create intentional blockages. The vacuum system closes all valves between flushes, effectively isolating each cell and removing a major source of maintenance for the prison.