State Department of Corrections Secretary Ed Wall spent his holiday weekend in Armavir, Armenia, along with several other corrections officials.

So why did Wall and his entourage take time away from their families to travel to an impoverished, wind-swept land?

To join Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan Saturday in dedicating a new prison — a prison that Wisconsin officials had a hand in developing.

Don Stolworthy, corrections team leader at the U.S. State Department, said the matchup between Wisconsin and Armenian corrections officials was a natural fit, since the Armenians were interested in electronic monitoring and probation, two facets that Armenia lacked, but at which Wisconsin excels.

“Since then the relationship has grown, and now it’s expanded into classification, activation, security operations and all facets of corrections,” Stolworthy said.

The Wisconsin officials have been working with Armenia to modernize its prison system since April 2012. In May 2013, 14 Armenian officials visited Wisconsin to attend training workshops and visit prisons. In September 2013, five Wisconsin corrections officials traveled to the mountainous country of 3 million to advise them on the development of evidence-based multi-disciplinary management techniques, involving social workers, security staff and medical personnel.

The partnership has included numerous Wisconsin staff, and about a dozen staffers and officials who are “regularly engaged” in the project, including wardens, the state’s training and probation directors and Deputy Secretary Deirdre Morgan.

Stolworthy said the new prison, which will house between 1,200 and 1,400 inmates — about a quarter of the country’s incarcerated population — is “the prototype by which they will propagate change throughout the system.”

And Wisconsin officials will remain engaged in Armenia, but not necessarily to the extent they have been for the last two years.

“We have to live within our resources,” Stolworthy said, “because we reimburse Wisconsin for its costs, so there’s no cost to Wisconsin taxpayers.”