Montville correctional center to close

Lamont cites low incarceration rates, says state will save more than $7M

The Radgowski Correctional Center in Montville will close by the end of the year, Gov. Ned Lamont announced Wednesday. The closure of the prison is one of three planned in the state by 2023 in order to save money.

Connecticut will save over $7 million in its closure of the Montville correctional center, Lamont said in a new release.

“Connecticut’s incarcerated population has been steadily declining for more than a decade and is now at a 32-year low, even as those identified as being more high-risk are serving more of their original sentences than ever before,” Lamont said. “Spending millions of dollars in annual operating costs on buildings that have historically low numbers of incarcerated individuals inside is just not a good use of resources.”

The announcement Wednesday comes after Connecticut’s first supermax prison, the Northern

Correctional Institution, in Somers, closed in June, which is expected to save the state over $11.75 million annually. The third facility’s closure is pending.

“Closing a correctional facility is an extremely complex process,” Department of Correction Commissioner Angel Quiros said. “However, thanks to the high caliber of our agency’s staff, I am confident that we will be able to successfully close this facility — just as we recently closed the Northern facility — in a wellplanned, methodical manner while preserving jobs and continuing to protect the public’s safety.”

The Radgowski Correctional Center opened in January 1991 as a medium-security facility for incarcerated men. The facility held up to 734 inmates in 2014, which was an all-time high, but currently houses 108 incarcerated individuals.

The 108 individuals will be transferred to different facilities alongside 110 employees. There will be no layoffs connected to the closure.

“Some of the reassigned staff members are anticipated to be redeployed to the Corrigan Correctional Center, which is located on the same compound as Radgowski,” the news release said.

The two correctional facility closures come after Connecticut has seen its incarcerated population decrease by over 3,200 individuals in the last 17 months. About 9,200 individuals remain imprisoned compared to the state’s all-time high of 19,894 in 2008.