Aaron Krieger wants to demystify the North Idaho Correctional Institution while also celebrating its 50th anniversary.

It has high fences topped with Concertina wire, cells and other signatures of a prison, but the warden doesn’t think of the facility tucked away on the Camas Prairie that way.

“It is technically considered a prison, but we run it like a treatment facility,” he said. “We still have to keep people safe and keep (residents) in our fences, but we prefer not to have a prison culture. We prefer to have a treatment culture.”

Krieger, his staff and residents will play host to an open house from 2 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, when visitors can learn about the facility and its culture, which aims to treat and release people convicted of serious crimes.

It has 428 residents. Nearly all of them are serving riders — incarceration that is one step below full-blown prison.

When judges hand down a sentence to a recently convicted person, they sometimes retrain jurisdiction. For example, that judge may impose a sentence of two to four years in prison but opt to retrain jurisdiction and send the person to a place like NICI in Cottonwood for up to a year.

There, residents receive treatment for drug and alcohol problems, have a chance to earn a GED and receive cognitive behavior treatment.

The atmosphere is designed to give people the opportunity to address the problems and behaviors that landed them in trouble. The setting is regimented but the treatment culture is not as intense as in prison.

“People feel more comfortable to talk about difficult things and not try to act tough all the time and put on a tough persona,” said Krieger. “They can be vulnerable. Prison culture does not lend itself to vulnerability and some of the honest conversations people need to have.”

Residents wake at 5 a.m. and go to bed at 8 p.m. In between they work on rehabilitation.

If the residents do well, the judge can release them on probation. If they don’t succeed, the judge sends them to prison to finish the original terms of their incarceration.

Krieger said about 87 percent of the residents successfully complete their riders and are released.

Those interested can learn more about the program. The open house will include the opportunity to go into the facility and interact with some of the staff and even some residents.

“People don’t have any idea what goes on up here,” said Krieger. “I want to show them what we are doing. People don’t realize there are 428 guys here and we release 20 to 30 a week.”

Release is not what you may have seen in movies in which the gates are open and the newly freed prisoner walks out. Maybe somebody is waiting for them, maybe not.

Krieger said his neighbors in Cottonwood probably wouldn’t like that much. Instead, residents who are released are either picked up by an approved family member or friend, or they are given a bus ride back to their communities.

The facility started its life during the Cold War as an Air Force base. The state took over in 1973 and a year later it opened as a correctional facility with 13 residents. At one time, it operated under a boot camp style.

“We kind of discovered that doesn’t work as well,” said Krieger.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.