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OTTUMWA, IOWA -- The Ottumwa Residential Correctional Facility broke ground Thursday on a new $4.1 million expansion project.

The project adds 25 beds to the facility, doubles the number of classrooms, and improves the existing facility.

Not only will the expansion help the existing facility, but it will also help the overall state of the prison system in Iowa.

“It will help decrease the offenders in our prison system and increase the ones that are here where you can get a job, you can get more treatment, and it is just a much better place to serve the last of your sentence,” said Iowa’s Department of Corrections director John Baldwin.

Construction on the expansion is expected to be complete in June 2011. Baldwin is looking forward to it’s completion to continue helping individuals.

“A person should have chances in the community to prove that they can stay in the community. If they keep proving that they do not want that opportunity then we have a place for them.  So I think it is very important that we keep improving their opportunities to be successful.”

The expansion will also double the number of counselors available for the residents, add a psychologist, and offer more classes and services and at a greater frequency.

“We have one of the best success rates in the country and that’s because we have a very cohesive system where the treatment plan follows the offender from community based corrections to prison and back out.”

The groundbreaking ceremony coincides with the National Probation and Parole Community Supervision Week.

The expansion is being funded by the I-Jobs program.

The Iowa Department of Corrections also recently broke ground on two other projects in the state.