The Willard Correctional Institution officially closed its doors Saturday, according to an announcement from Gov. Ned Lamont.
After sharing plans to shut down the Enfield prison in January, Lamont said the Connecticut Department of Correction permanently closed the facility Saturday morning.
In his statement, Lamont attributed the decision to a declining incarcerated population and crime rate. The administration expects the closure will save taxpayers $6.5 million annually.
“The closing of the Willard facility fulfills the promise our administration made to close three correctional facilities as part of our larger commitment to reduce the cost structure of state government,” Governor Lamont said Saturday, in a nod to the closure of the Radgowski Correctional Center in October 2021, and Northern Correctional Institution in June 2021.
“As both crime and the prison population have significantly decreased over the past decade, this just makes good fiscal sense,” Lamont said.
Willard opened as a level two facility for sentenced male offenders in 1990.
Roughly two-thirds of the 260 individuals incarcerated at Willard during the January announcement were transferred to the Cybulski Community Reintegration Center in Somers, the Lamont administration said. The remaining third were relocated to other facilities across the state.
“Once again, the staff of the Department of Correction has carried out the complex process of shuttering a facility professionally and seamlessly,” Department of Correction Commissioner Angel Quiros said. “Every effort was made to minimize the impact on staff members, as well as to the individuals under our care.”
According to the Lamont administration, the state’s incarcerated population currently sits at 10,000 — a figure that is nearly half of the all-time high of 19,894 recorded in February 2008. Additionally, the administration said Connecticut’s violent crime rate is less than 50% of the national rate, with violent crimes falling 43% and property crimes falling 29% over the last 10 years.
