Lamont closes third Connecticut jail following falling crime charges

The Willard Correctional Establishment formally closed its doorways Saturday, in keeping with an announcement from Gov. Ned Lamont.

After sharing plans to shut down the Enfield jail in January, Lamont mentioned the Connecticut Division of Correction completely closed the power Saturday morning.

In his assertion, Lamont attributed the choice to a declining incarcerated inhabitants and crime charge. The administration expects the closure will save taxpayers $6.5 million yearly.

“The closing of the Willard facility fulfills the promise our administration made to shut three correctional services as a part of our bigger dedication to scale back the price construction of state authorities,” Governor Lamont mentioned Saturday, in a nod to the closure of the Radgowski Correctional Heart in October 2021, and Northern Correctional Establishment in June 2021.

“As each crime and the jail inhabitants have considerably decreased over the previous decade, this simply makes good fiscal sense,” Lamont mentioned.

Willard opened as a stage two facility for sentenced male offenders in 1990.

Roughly two-thirds of the 260 people incarcerated at Willard in the course of the January announcement have been transferred to the Cybulski Neighborhood Reintegration Heart in Somers, the Lamont administration mentioned. The remaining third have been relocated to different services throughout the state.

“As soon as once more, the employees of the Division of Correction has carried out the complicated technique of shuttering a facility professionally and seamlessly,” Division of Correction Commissioner Angel Quiros mentioned. “Each effort was made to reduce the affect on employees members, in addition to to the people below our care.”

In keeping with the Lamont administration, the state’s incarcerated inhabitants at the moment sits at 10,000 — a determine that’s almost half of the all-time excessive of 19,894 recorded in February 2008. Moreover, the administration mentioned Connecticut’s violent crime charge is lower than 50% of the nationwide charge, with violent crimes falling 43% and property crimes falling 29% over the past 10 years.