Massachusetts is planning to shutter MCI-Concord, the state’s oldest prison for men

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts is planning to shutter MCI-Concord, the state’s oldest prison for men, as it continues to see a decline in the prison population statewide.

Closing the medium security facility, which opened in 1878, will save the state about $16 million according to a budget plan Gov. Maura Healey is set to unveil Wednesday.

The prison is only at about half-capacity and would need extensive repairs if it were kept open, said state Sen. Jamie Eldridge, Democratic co-chair of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary. The approximately 400 prisoners still at the facility will be sent to other prisons.

The prison could be closed as early as June, said Eldridge, who credited the declining number of inmates in part to efforts by the state to reduce recidivism.

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“If there was going to be a prison closed in Mass, MCI Concord was the one,” he said.

The proposed 2024 budget Healey is set to unveil is expected to include several proposals the Democrat previewed during her State of the Commonwealth speech earlier this month, including lowering the staggering cost of housing and childcare and making Massachusetts “the climate innovation lab for the world.”

But the biggest challenge according to Healey remains the lack of affordable housing.

Healey said the administration is trying to tackle the problem by pushing a $4 billion housing plan, which she said would make it easier to find affordable places to live in the state.

The governor has also proposed an initiative aimed at giving parents across Massachusetts, and particularly in the state’s former industrial “Gateway Cities,” better access to child care and early education. The plan would guarantee that every 4-year-old in the 26 cities has the chance, at low or no cost, to enroll their child in a high-quality preschool program by 2026.

Healey’s said her budget would also help an additional 4,000 low- and moderate-income families afford child care by increasing eligibility for Child Care Financial Assistance — the state’s programs that help families pay for child care and out-of-school programs.

Healey also vowed to set a new goal for early education in Massachusetts: universal pre-K for every 4-year-old in the state.

Her budget proposal will also call for $10 million to ensure the most vulnerable young people in the state have access to mental health care, she said.

Healey also acknowledged that the state has also come under increasing pressure as it tries to cope with a continued influx of migrants, straining the state’s homeless shelter system.

The release of the budget comes more than two weeks after Healey announced $375 million in budget cuts for the current fiscal year as the administration seeks to close an expected $1 billion shortfall with monthly revenues coming in at a slower pace than expected.