Shutting down the minimum-security Webster Correctional Institution in Cheshire could save the state $3.4 million a year, says Governor M. Jodi Rell, who announced the decision by the Department of Correction Tuesday afternoon.
The state's prison population is actually down from 19,900 in February 2008 to 18,300 currently, according to her office. The nearly 20-year-old prison will require the transfer of approximately 220 inmates. An annex of the building will remain in use.
"We face an extraordinarily difficult budget situation -- a challenge unlike any we have known in modern memory," Rell's statement read. She cited the DOC's success in reducing recidivism, along with the need to cut state spending.
This, she said, should avoid any layoffs of staff while keeping staff, inmates and the public safe.
The closure could take slightly more than 2 months.
