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We'll be right over with big time in.
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Date Posted: 05:48:29 01/27/12 Fri
NORFOLK - Gov. Deval Patrick can expect a fight over plans to close the Bay State Correctional Facility, said state Rep. Daniel Winslow, R-Norfolk, who called the proposal a threat to public safety.
Patrick, in his proposed fiscal 2013 budget, plans to save $8.9 million by closing the 200 to 300-inmate medium-security facility.
A similar proposal was defeated last year.
"I'll fight it with all the strength in me," Winslow said, adding that closing a prison within the state's overcrowded corrections system without taking steps to either reform sentencing or rehabilitate prisoners could represent a threat to the public, as well as to corrections officers and inmates themselves.
Winslow said the state prison system's recidivism rate is currently running at 60 percent, which he said means the system is returning prisoners to society who are not ready to function as normal citizens. "I want to return correction back to the department of corrections," he said.
Closing of the state prison facility would also have an impact on jobs and mitigation funds paid by the state to communities that host prisons. Norfolk currently receives $88,000 a year as its share.
State Sen. Richard Ross, R-Wrentham, said that if more inmates are to be released to compensate for the closing, he wants to be assured that proper evaluation procedures are in place to determine that those sent into the community are the least likely to commit new crimes.
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