Bergin Correctional Institution to Close

It’s official. in Storrs is closing after nearly two decades of operation at its Middle Turnpike location.

Brian Garnett, Director of External Affairs for the Department of Correction (DOC) said Wednesday afternoon that the department would be closing the Bergin facility by August 15, following the governor’s recent decision to reduce 6,466 personnel positions, in addition to issuing layoff notices to 5,466 state employees as part of his .

The called for the closure of two state prisons by the end of the year. J.B. Gates Correctional Institution in Niantic closed its doors on June 1.

Last month, the state announced that it would be under a contingency plan if a labor agreement could not be reached with the state employees’ unions. Days later, the administration announced had been reached with the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, and the layoff notices to Bergin’s 218 employees had been rescinded.

Now, plans to relocate Bergin’s 931 inmates to other facilities are imminent, and layoff notices to the prison's employees will be going out by the end of the week, said Garnett.

that if the state chose to close the prison, Mansfield would unlikely be impacted heavily by the decision because the Department of Corrections would be retaining the property, and Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) funds would be maintained.

According to the DOC's Web site, Bergin, then known as the Northeast Correctional Institution, first closed in 1997, due to the “redistribution and consolidation of the inmate population.” The facility reopened in February 1999, and in 2001, the prison’s name was officially changed to the Donald T. Bergin Correctional Institution.

Patch freelancer Hugh McQuaid contributed to this story.