HAUSER - The South Coast's only prison, the Shutter Creek Correctional Institution, is getting a facelift, with a new building and much of its aging infrastructure replaced during the coming months.

"Our population is booming, unfortunately," explained Shutter Creek Superintendent Tim Causey.

The minimum-security prison that sits atop a hill at the end of Shutters Landing in Hauser is surrounded by chain link fence topped with barbed wire.

Background checks are required before visitors' appointments are made. A guard opens the motorized gate only after making sure they don't have weapons, pets and aren't wearing khakis or denim.

The series of utilitarian buildings farther up the hill past the gate look more like school administration offices than a prison.

To make room for more inmates, a three-story building with two floors of living space is under construction, said Causey.

Shutter Creek now has 280 prisoners, 30 of them women. The bottom floor of the new building, which will house 100 inmates, will include a mechanics area and classrooms.

The prison now houses inmates in two barracks inherited from a U.S. Air Force radar station. Those barracks, built in the 1950s, will sit on either side of the new building under construction.

Shutter Creek is also getting its plumbing and phone lines replaced. Slayden Construction of Stayton is the primary contractor for the $5.3 million project, which is scheduled for completion in April 2006.

Among local subcontractors are Jones Plumbing and Heating of Coquille and Kyle Electric of North Bend, said Julie Martin, Shutter Creek's management assistant.

Shutter Creek now has 135 security, management and other non-custody staff. With the expansion, it will add 34 more staff members - 27 security and seven medical, food services, maintenance and counseling workers, said Martin.

Causey said expansion has been talked about since 1995, but funds didn't become available until July, with the recently passed state budget.

That expenditure also includes money for expanding Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville and construction of a new men's prison in Madras, Martin said.

Coffee Creek, a women's prison that also serves as the state's prisoner intake center, will get 108 more minimum-security beds by July 2006 and 216 maximum-security beds by May 2007, said Martin.

The Madras facility will probably open sometime in 2007, with 864 minimum-security beds and 1,240 medium-security, Martin said.

Shutter Creek operates the state's Summit Program, a rehabilitation program aimed at helping inmates resume life outside prison without repeating mistakes that landed them there.

"Our institution is the state's boot camp program," said Causey, who has been superintendent since November 2003.

The program lets eligible prisoners - ones who have served at least 36 months of their sentences - knock off as much as 30 months from their sentences by completing a six-month program of classes.

Those cover drug and alcohol addiction, work skills and ethics, making and keeping good social relationships and parenting.

Inmates who haven't completed high school must get general education development, Causey added.

The program has three stages with inmates wearing differently colored hats for each two-month stage: green for the first stage, red for the second stage, gold for the third.

Crews of inmates are often seen doing work for other agencies or cities, such as the crew that cleaned up Ferry Park in North Bend recently.

The percentage of graduating inmates who end up returning to prison is about 22 percent, said Causey. The state's average is about 30 percent.

Successful graduates of the program often come back to watch other classes graduate, Causey noted.

"We usually have about 15 graduates show up for later graduations," he said. "We've got one person who returns for each of them - it's part of his relapse prevention strategy."

Shutter Creek's population ranks now as relatively small, said Causey, but the new building will bring it into the mid-sized range, comparable with Lake County's minimum-security Warner Creek Correctional Facility, which incarcerates about 400 prisoners.

Oregon's prisons are so short of space to keep prisoners the state is renting jail cells from some counties, said Causey, who attributed the shortage to mandatory minimum sentencing for violent crimes.