Massachusetts closes another correctional facility, this time a minimum security prison in Bridgewater

Massachusetts is closing another correctional facility, in the latest change to the state’s prison system amid its declining population.

The Massachusetts Department of Correction announced Thursday that Old Colony Correctional Center in Bridgewater will no longer house inmates due to the facility’s condition and renovation needs. The state said not renovating the facility will save about $2.6 million.

OCCC-Minimum, constructed 40 years ago, is a minimum security men’s facility that focuses on mental health located on the same campus as a medium security facility, Bridgewater State Hospital, and the Massachusetts Treatment Center, all of which will stay open. 

OCCC-Minimum, which has 160 beds, currently has 70 people incarcerated there, the DOC said. Those individuals will be transferred to other minimum security facilities, including Boston Pre-Release Center, Northeastern Correctional Center, and Pondville Correctional Center. Overall, those facilities are operating at 59 percent capacity, according to the department’s weekly inmate reports.

The 26 staff members will be reassigned to OCCC’s medium security facility on the same campus, MADOC said. While the state did not say exactly when the facility will close, all inmates will be transferred out by Oct. 31.

DOC’s declining population

The announcement to shutter OCCC-Minimum comes just a month after the closure of MCI-Concord, the state’s oldest prison. Its closure saves about $16 million annually. The state dissolved housing at maximum-security facility MCI-Cedar Junction in Walpole last year.

“The historically low population within the DOC allows us to assess our facility needs in order to be a fiscally responsible partner in the state of Massachusetts,” Shawn Jenkins, DOC’s interim director, said in a statement. “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.”

Massachusetts’s prison population has declined over the last decade. In 2014, the department reported more than 11,700 inmates. Earlier this month, the DOC said there are 6,050 inmates across their 18 facilities.