Bergin Correctional Institution
July 21, 2011
HADDAD: BERGIN CLOSING MAY NOT BE PERMANENT
By Heather Lake, Chronicle Staff Writer
MANSFIELD — Although Bergin Correctional Institution, the minimum-security prison in town, is slated to close in early August, the closure could only be temporary.
State Rep. Greg Haddad, D-Mansfield, said the fact prisons are difficult to site is an incentive for the state to keep the property, at least in the short term.
“The DOC, when it closes a facility, will typically put them into moth balls so they can utilize them in the future,” Haddad said.
The facility was already targeted for closure due to a declining prison population in Connecticut and when state employees rejected their contract, its closure became more pressing, Haddad said.
“The state’s Department of Correction was forced to make that decision quickly,” Haddad said.
This is not the first time the facility, which opened in 1989, has been closed for budgetary purposes and, like before, it is expected the state will retain ownership of the property.
Because the state will hold on to the property, the fiscal impact on Mansfield should be relatively benign, according to local and state officials.
As long as the property remains under state ownership, there would be no impact to the town’s Payment In Lieu Of Taxes funds — money received by the town to reimburse property taxes lost.
Of the $7.2 million in PILOT funds the town receives annually from the state, only a small portion — between $ 100,000 and $ 200,000 — is related to the prison property, according to Mansfield Town Administrator Matthew Hart. The rest is connected to the University of Connecticut campus. “This will have no immediate impact on Mansfield’s PILOT,” Haddad said.
Although there will be little to no direct fiscal impact Hart said, he expects there will be something of a trickledown effect felt by the community in terms of local businesses patronized by employees and community enhancement projects conducted by the prison inmates.
While many communities have negative feelings about having a correctional facility in their midst, Hart said Mansfield has enjoyed a unique relationship with Bergin and is disappointed about its impending closure.
The town has a public safety committee that has worked closely with prison officials over the years to ensure the community’s well-being, he said.
The town’s planning and zoning commission has also enjoyed a good working relationship with the prison in terms of the facility’s aesthetic impact, according to Hart.
“ Committee members are disappointed,” Hart said “They are saddened by the fact that the state, inmates and their families are going to lose the benefit of the prison’s programs.”
Fourteen of the more than 200 prison employees live in Mansfield, according to Hart.
He said he believes some of them are eligible for transfer, but others are essentially guaranteed pink slips.
The approximately 600 male inmates will be transferred to other facilities.