Connecticut officially closed Northern Correctional Institution Friday, three weeks ahead of the planned July 1 closure.
The maximum-security prison in Somers was closed as part of a restructuring plan as the state's prison population declined over the past 15 months.
Northern Correctional Institution opened in 1995. Its prison population has not exceeded 100 since July 2020. At its peak population in January 2003, the facility housed 510 inmates.
"New prison admissions in Connecticut have declined significantly over the last decade and the incarcerated population is currently at a 32-year low," Governor Ned Lamont said. "This is even as violent, high-risk inmates are serving more of their original sentences than ever before. Spending millions of dollars annually to operate facilities for a population that continues to get smaller and smaller is not a good use of resources, especially as we work to reduce the cost structure of state government."
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The inmates who had been at Northern Correctional Institution have been moved to other maximum-security facilities throughout the state.
At the time the governor announced the planned closure in February, there were 175 Department of Correction staff working at the prison. None of those staff members was laid off due to the closure, according to Gov. Lamont. They are being redeployed to other facilities.
