(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont today announced that the Connecticut Department of Correction has closed the Willard Correctional Institution in Enfield as of Saturday, April 1, 2023.
The governor announced his administration’s plans to close the facility in January in a decision that was largely attributed to the significant drop in the state’s incarcerated population. The total population at all correctional facilities statewide currently stands at roughly 10,000 individuals, which is substantially down from the all-time high of 19,894 in February of 2008. Over this same period of time, crime in Connecticut has also substantially decreased. During the last decade, the state’s violent crime rate fell by 43% and its property crime rate declined by 29%. In the most recent year of available data, Connecticut’s violent crime rate was less than half the national rate.
“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. “As both crime and the prison population have significantly decreased over the past decade, this just makes good fiscal sense.”
“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.”
Willard opened in 1990 as a level 2 facility for sentenced male offenders. When plans to close the facility were announced in January, it housed approximately 260 individuals. All of the individuals who were located at Willard have been transferred to other facilities throughout the state. Approximately two-thirds were relocated to the nearby Cybulski Community Reintegration Center.