SEATTLE -- Now that he has been officially sentenced, Ridgway now heads to prison until the day he dies.

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Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne discovered where Ridgway is going and how the state plans to keep him safe inside.

By the end of the week, Gary Ridgway will be shackled, put in a van and sent to the Washington Corrections Center near Shelton.

Once there, he will not be walking among the other inmates.

Gary Ridgway has become famous in his own sick way -- notoriety that has also made him a marked man.

Prison officials say there are some inmates who would like to make a name for themselves and harm someone like Ridgway.

That's OK with some of the families effected by the Green River Killer.

"As the prison population awakens, there are men coughing and flushing toilets, the men in those cells might not like your notoriety. They just might like to kill you," said LuAnne Yellowrobe.

"I hope that you do go to general population. Be a man and don't go to protective custody. Be a sissy. It's easy to kill women, but let's see how you do against some of the men in general population. You don't last long," said Kevin Winston, whose sister was murdered.

But the Washington Department of Corrections wants Ridgway to live to old age.

Classifications Chief Jim Thatcher tells KIRO Team 7 Investigators Ridgway will be secluded when he arrives at WCC.

He'll be watched, evaluated, examined and tested for several months before any final decisions about his cell address is made.

Ridgway's attorney Mark Prothero hopes his client will be sent out of state.

"That would probably be a safe bet from the Department of Corrections, given what some of the family members were relating. There are people in our state system. They have connections," Prothero said.

Taxpayers will certainly be saving lots of money when Ridgway moves in the prison at Shelton. It costs about $65 a day to keep him there.

King County was paying several thousand dollars a day to house him inside the Green River Task Force headquarters.