The State Correctional Institute at Rockview yesterday dedicated the Pennsylvania corrections system's first medical and psychological treatment center.

The $6.8 million medical building will soon relieve inmates, nurses and doctors from what prison health officials call the "cramped, outdated and inadequate treatment facilities" scattered around the prison compound.

Corrections officials are waiting for state funds to add security staff necessary to run the facility, said Administrative Assistant Jack Allar.

"We hope the building will be open soon," he said.

David Owens, commissioner of the state's Department of Corrections, said the new facility is the first prison building in the state constructed solely for health care. He said the corrections department not only has a responsibility to keep inmates behind bars, but also must ensure their right to proper health care.

"We're in a time where security becomes the primary issue. Let's not lose sight of the need for health as well," he said.

Over 100 state lawmakers, judges and Department of Corrections employees attended the dedication and toured the two-story building.

Among officials present were State Rep. Lynn Herman, R-Centre; County Common Pleas Judge David Grine, and Centre County commissioners Vicki Bumbarger and Keith Bierly.

Rockview Superintendent Joseph Mazurkiewicz said officials first considered creating the treatment center in 1975 and began drafting plans and proposals five years later.

Constructed mostly of concrete and cinderblock, the building sits next to the 74-year-old prison's main cell block. The first floor includes a new reception area, records department and control center that monitors locking systems throughout the building.

A door leads to a playground --surrounded by high fences wrapped with razor wire -- for children visiting inmates with family.

Until the building is opened, patients will continue to receive psychological and minor medical care in their cells, said Larry Lidgett, nursing supervisor.

More serious cases are sent to Centre Community Hospital, he said.

"The treatment has been adequate but the environment for the patients is inappropriate," Lidgett said.

Rockview, with nearly 2,000 inmates, employs 16 nurses and contracts three physicians who work on different shifts, said Health Care Administrator John Kormanic.

Presently there is one doctor's office, which doubles as an examination room, a small treatment room, a dental care office and a nursing supervisor's office, Kormanic said.

Inmate counselors work out of trailers on the compound and psychologists see patients in the old deputy warden's building, which houses Pennsylvania's only electric chair.

The second floor of the three-story building holds three wards with four rooms each for medical patients, and 22 cells for psychological patients. On the top floor are rooms for individual and group psychological counseling and administrative offices.

The medical center also will include a physical therapy room, a cast room, an X-ray, and an eye-ear-nose examination room, Kormanic said.

"It's going to be a major relief," said Mazurliewicz. "It's going to give us a lot of space we can use."

Because staff will be able to handle more medical problems, fewer inmates will need to be taken to the hospital, Allar said. Two of the medical unit's 16 bedrooms will be used for observation and two others for isolation -- both facilities not available at the hospital.

Owens said if the center is successful, lawmakers may consider using it as a model for other prisons.

"We're going to take a good look at this one, and it is my expectation to build other treatment facilities within the department," he said.