By David Eggert
Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. — Michigan will close a prison south of Traverse City in September to save $22 million in the next budget, a move the state’s correction chief said is possible because of reductions in the prison population and fewer people being incarcerated.
The Pugsley Correctional Facility in Kingsley, which opened as a prison camp in 1956, was converted to a minimum-security prison in 2001. It has 1,344 inmate beds and 230 employees.
Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration and lawmakers hinted at a prison closure last week while finalizing spending levels for state agencies and budget areas that had to be scaled back due to lower-than-expected tax revenues. The Senate’s initial budget plan had called for closing two prisons, while Snyder and the House instead favored closing individual housing units inside prisons.
“While this is a difficult day for the staff at Pugsley, the ability to close a facility is a result of the hard work by so many across the department to help bring down our prison population,” Corrections Director Heidi Washington said in a statement. “This closure will provide the maximum savings possible to taxpayers.”
The announcement came a day before a House-Senate budget committee is expected to endorse the closure as part of a $2 billion corrections budget. On Tuesday, other conference panels are meeting to consider big-ticket budgets such as school aid and transportation.
Michigan’s prison population, which peaked in 2007 at 51,554, is now below 42,000 for the first time in nearly two decades. The department said that since 2005, it has closed and consolidated more than 25 facilities and camps.
The agency said it will try to transfer as many Pugsley workers as possible into other open MDOC jobs.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press