The Moundsville Center has named a national corrections and law enforcement expert as its interim director. Steve Morrison, who currently holds positions at two high-tech law enforcement and corrections training facilities, is going to lend his expertise to the Moundsville Center until Jan. 31, 2001.
“I'm working at it like I'm going to be here forever,” Morrison said.  “We're building the infrastructure needed for the Center to grow to its full potential,” Morrison said.  The toll-free number and e-mail are up and running and the Website is under way.” Morrison, who lists computer technology as one of his personal interests, said the Moundsville Center must stay on the cutting edge of technology if it is to succeed in the venue for which it was conceived – after all, the full name for the Center is National Corrections and Law Enforcement Training and Technology Center.
But although technology is an imperative for the Center's success, Morrison said that after the facility is established, it will attract law enforcement and corrections clients from around the country as easily as other industries might attract customers from around town.
'There are no other national training centers like it anywhere.  There are some federal training facilities, such as the NIC in Colorado and the FBI national training center in Virginia, but these places don't offer the same training environment that The Moundsville Center will,' he said.
The Moundsville Center has been evolving steadily for about three years as a place for law enforcement and corrections teams to get realistic training in a prison-facility setting.  The first such use of the former West Virginia Penitentiary came when the annual Mock Prison Riot was initiated in 1997
The year-round training initiative, known as The Moundsville Center, has hosted several corrections and law enforcement teams from across the country, but the facility has yet to achieve the level of traffic its planners have envisioned.  Morrison predicts the big increase will happen in February or March of 2001.  
Bringing Morrison on board in the interim director's role is one way the Moundsville Economic Development Council (MEDC) hopes to meet those goals.
“We are relying on Morrison's national reputation and expertise to lay the groundwork for the Center's future growth,” said Rachel Miller, executive director of the MEDC.
Morrison has a lot of experience designing and executing the kind of training programs The Moundsville Center wants to host.  He currently is also working for the Space and Navel Warfare Center as will as the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Training and Technology Center, Southeast Region, both in Charleston, SC.
“We have identified our target audience as corrections and law enforcement and are developing a training schedule based on the needs these audiences have reported to us.  The plans are to offer training or workshops on a monthly basis with the opportunity for teams to train in the facility any time,” Morrison said.