BRIDGEWATER, MASS. (WHDH) - The state Department of Correction will close its minimum security prison in Bridgewater later this year, relocating current inmates and transferring existing staff, officials announced Thursday.
The closure will impact the Old Colony Correctional Center minimum security men’s prison. All current inmates are expected to be relocated by Oct. 31. The prison’s 26 correctional staff members will transfer to Old Colony’s medium security facility, which sits on the same Bridgewater campus as the minimum security wing. The medium security prison will remain open.
Bridgewater State Hospital and the Massachusetts Treatment Center, which share a campus with Old Colony, will also continue operations.
The Department of Correction announced the minimum security facility’s closure in a statement, saying officials made the decision after assessing the facility’s age, maintenance needs, and required renovations.
Had the state continued operations at the minimum security portion of Old Colony, it would have needed to make roughly $2.6 million in various investments, the Department of Correction said.
The minimum security wing at Old Colony, known as OCCC-Minimum, is 40 years old. It has space for roughly 160 inmates but was only housing 70 people as of this week.
The 70 current inmates will undergo a reclassification process ahead of the OCCC-Minimum closure and be moved to other minimum security facilities in Massachusetts, “based on care, services, and programming needs,” according to the Department of Correction. Potential destinations include the Boston Pre-Release Center in Roslindale, the Northeastern Correctional Center in West Concord, and the Pondville Correctional Center in Norfolk.
“The strategic consolidation of DOC resources reflects the Department’s ongoing dedication to the responsible management of taxpayer resources while improving operations, upholding its rehabilitative mission, and delivering effective services to those under their care,” said state Public Safety and Security Secretary Terrence Reidy in a statement.
Reidy continued, praising Department of Correction leaders “for their hard work and continued efforts to deliver an effective correctional system for the incarcerated population, DOC staff, and the community…”
Interim Department of Correction Commissioner Shawn Jenkins said the state’s “historically low” prison population is allowing officials to assess needs “in order to be a fiscally responsible partner in the state of Massachusetts.”
“The DOC will continue to empower our housed individuals to succeed upon release and we believe the closure of this facility and relocation of the current population will help them flourish,” Jenkins said.
The upcoming prison close in Bridgewater follows the July closure of Massachusetts’ medium-security prison in Concord.
Announced in January, the Concord closure shut the doors on a more than 140-year-old facility that had been the state’ oldest operating prison.
Elsewhere, Massachusetts in 2022 embarked on a process of winding down operations at MCI-Cedar Junction, a maximum security prison in Walpole. The state ended housing operations at MCI-Cedar Junction in June 2023.
The Mass Correction Officers Federated Union, which represents many staff members at Massachusetts prisons and county jails, responded to news of the MCI-Concord closure in January, saying “the closing of MCI Concord or any other prison will burden our already violent and dangerous prisons.”
Union officials called on state officials to stop the closure, which they said would “no doubt place our officers throughout the Commonwealth in grave danger.”
State officials moved forward with plans to close MCI-Concord and confirmed all inmates had been relocated as of July 17.
In announcing the OCCC-Minimum closure, the Department of Correction said it is enhancing public safety with “the secure, humane, and efficient operation of correctional facilities.”
“The Department remains deeply committed to rehabilitating those entrusted to their care and reducing recidivism through effective programming and services aimed at empowering individuals to prepare for a successful reintegration into society,” officials said.
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