Construction on New Women's Prison in Danbury to Begin

The construction of a new federal prison for women in Danbury will begin this summer, the News Times reports.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch told a Senate Panel on Thursday after being questioned by U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, (D-Conn.), the paper reports. Lynch did not give a completion estimate.

The project initially had a completion date of May 2015 but the need for an environmental impact study led the Bureau of Prisons to push back the date, the paper reports.

According to the paper, the discussion over the prison began when the BOP announced in 2013 that the Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury would be turned into an all male facility and the women prisoners would be transferred to Alabama. Lawmakers wrote to the bureau saying the move would disrupt the lives of the women prisoners.

The bureau then pledged to build a new facility that would house 412 women on the Danbury site.

Read the full story at the News Times.

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