Elmore County prison will be named after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey

Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm shows lawmakers photos of construction progress on the state's new 4,000-bed prison during a Legislative Prison Oversight Committee meeting in Montgomery, Ala., on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. A new prison in Elmore County will be named for Gov. Kay Ivey. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler) Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm shows lawmakers photos of construction progress on the state's new 4,000-bed prison during a Legislative Prison Oversight Committee meeting in Montgomery, Ala., on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. A new prison in Elmore County will be named for Gov. Kay Ivey. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)

By Ralph Chapoco November 16, 2024 3 min read

State officials will name a $1 billion prison in Elmore County after Gov. Kay Ivey, who made its construction a priority in her first term.

Members of the Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority, which oversees prison financing, voted Wednesday to call the facility the “Governor Kay Ivey Correctional Complex.”

Gina Maiola, a spokesperson for the governor, said in a statement Wednesday that Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm proposed the move, “and the governor ultimately gave it her blessing.”

“There is no governor in Alabama’s history who has done more to improve the state’s corrections system than Gov. Ivey, so it is fitting that one of the new facilities will bear her name,” the statement said. “And her work on this issue is certainly not done.”