CAMERON, Mo. – As Jaecey Hill surveyed career paths in early 2024, the Northwest Missouri native had ample options in the post-pandemic market. But one thing was not optional: choosing a job that would make her late grandfather — who served as a firefighter — proud.
“I really wanted to do something meaningful that would make a difference in the community, not some boring 9-to-5 job,” said Hill, a corrections officer at Maryville Treatment Center (MTC). “Training for this job has made me a better communicator and overall, a more confident person.”
Hill is one of the first trainees to come through the new Academy for Excellencein Corrections (AEC), an experiential learning center built from the repurposed Western Missouri Correctional Center (WMCC) in Cameron.
Unlike any other correctional training facility in the nation, the AEC allows Missouri Department of Corrections staff to learn, practice and prepare for their jobs in an authentic corrections environment.
“Learning how to do a cell search for contraband, and being in an actual cell, made it feel real,” Hill said. “And not having a resident looking over your shoulder while you’re doing it and getting used to the process is less nerve-wracking.”
The AEC celebrated its formal grand opening with a ribbon cutting, dedication and guided tours on Nov. 18, during which Missouri Department of Corrections Acting Director Trevor Foley thanked the corrections professionals, resident work crews and supporters who brought the project to fruition.
“This team is responsible for realizing our dream of creating a modern, welcoming space where the values of the department are embraced, the skills of the vocation are instilled and the dignity of the profession can be upheld,” Foley said. “The result is a corrections academy unlike any other in the United States.”
The ceremony included the dedication of Clements Hall, named for longtime Missouri Department of Corrections executive and advocate for progressive corrections improvements Tom Clements, who was assassinated at his home in Colorado in 2013. Clements initiated countless innovations in Missouri and Colorado. “It is only fitting that we honor Tom in this place where we are building the next generation of corrections professionals,” Foley said. “We must never stop striving to do better.”
By simulating the settings in the department’s 19 adult institutions, as well as components of its two probation and parole transition centers, the improved training experience aims to increase staff retention and job satisfaction.
The Missouri Department of Corrections has a major presence in Texas County. The South Central Correctional Center is on West Highway 32 at Licking. It houses 1,600.
“After COVID hit, staffing was a challenge — not just for corrections, but for everybody,” said Mike Strong, Division of Human Services director. “You can have any type of a training facility, but until you actually experience it, it’s not the same. At the academy, you actually get to run a control center, perform searches and do fence checks in a real environment. That was our thinking: What can we do to set up our staff to be more successful moving forward?”
The WMCC facility was made available thanks to a 30% drop in the statewide prison population over the past eight years. In 2019, Crossroads Correctional Center (CRCC), also in Cameron, was consolidated with WMCC, and by 2022, the prison population had shrunk enough to move residents and staff into the smaller but more modern CRCC. Then the process of overhauling WMCC began.
For starters, many prison cells in housing units were transformed into college dormitory-style quarters — featuring smart TVs with Wi-Fi, XL twin beds and vinyl hardwood flooring — for trainees to stay overnight. Each wing now has three shower stalls with attached private dressing rooms.
Administrative areas have been modernized, classrooms have been expanded to accommodate 30-plus students, and the barbershop is now the AEC Micro-mart. MODOC collaborated with the Department of Conservation and the Youth Alliance of St. Joseph to plant native trees and shrubs, thus enlivening the environs.
The project required 7,150 work hours to complete.
“When you walk in now, it’s like a classy hotel lobby with an open reception area and a receptionist sitting where the control center used to be,” said Chelsea Spackler, AEC training administrator. “I was here from 2001–’07 as a functional unit manager, and it’s almost unrecognizable. It’s absolutely beautiful.”
The AEC welcomed its first nonresidential cohort for new officer training in January 2024 and has been gradually phasing in additional classes on a regional basis throughout the year — a process that will be complete in January 2025. Overnight stays begin later this month.
“I would encourage people who are going into it to ask a lot of questions and take advantage of the opportunity to learn,” Hill said. “Each facility is different, but the academy helps prepare you for what a prison is really like.
“I had a lot of fun during the training process.”
In the Academy for Excellence in Corrections, new staff are trained in environments that mirror those in which they will be working. Staff practice cell searches, counts and other functions in real housing units.
Training Tech Ryan Brownlow teaches a class in the newly remodeled Academy for Excellence in Corrections.
A housing unit in the Academy for Excellence in Corrections has been converted into a staff dormitory, where new hires live during their pre-service training. Each single-person room is equipped with a bed, a TV, a desk and Wi-Fi. Each wing has private shower stalls and dressing rooms.
MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS