When news broke that MCI-Concord, the oldest men’s prison in Massachusetts, was closing in the summer, one official said the town was caught off guard by the news.
The state Department of Correction announced the closing on Wednesday, Jan. 24. The medium-security lockup, which first opened in 1878, will close this summer, according to published reports. The 300 people currently held there will be moved to other state prisons, WBUR reported. The prison’s staff also will be moved, according to the Healey administration.
Concord Chamber of Commerce President Marie Foley said she found out once the Concord Bridge, a local news site, posted its first story about the closure on Jan. 23 after speaking with state Sen. Michael Barrett.
“The intention is to close the prison completely by the end of June,” Barrett, D-3rd Middlesex, told the newspaper. He said he learned about the closing last Tuesday by the Department of Correction.
“As soon as they put it online, that’s how all of us found out about it,” Foley told MassLive on Monday.
Foley added that neither the chamber nor her colleagues among her several small businesses in town have talked about the closure and what it could mean for the town.
“Today is my first day home working on paperwork, I have not been out on the street,” she said. “I usually walk the streets, chat with people to find out what they’re thinking of what’s going on. But I haven’t had time to do that yet.”
While the story was posted online on Tuesday, she said that many residents and business owners likely did not see the story until the Saturday morning paper. Amidst any stacks of mail left over the weekend, some business owners likely did not read those newspapers until Monday morning, she said.
“That’s part of why I held off going door to door because I did not want to have to explain it in detail every time,” Foley said. “I wanted them to have a little bit of background before I went and chatted with them. It’s big news but it’s sudden big news.”
The closure comes as the state’s prison population is at its lowest in 35 years, according to the Department of Correction, and “this action reflects the department’s ongoing efforts to enhance operational efficiency, advance cost-saving solutions, and deepen investments in programming and services,” the agency said in a statement obtained by MassLive.
The Correction Department “will begin the process of transferring correctional officers and incarcerated individuals throughout this fiscal year with the expectation that this process will be complete by the summer of 2024,” the agency said in its statement.
The agency’s announcement was met with praise from town officials, with Select Board Chair Henry Dane telling the Bridge that the land could be used for Concord Public Works. Keith Bergman, Concord’s representative to the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, told the Bridge that the land could be used for affordable housing, while Housing Authority member Edward Larner said the news presents “an opportunity that will be vigorously pursued and [I] hope that any obstacles can be mitigated.”
MassLive has reached out to the town government about its response to the closure.
Foley said the announcement was similar to when state officials turned a former Best Western in Concord into an emergency family shelter for homeless people and migrants.
The Boston Globe reported in February 2023 that town officials “were thrown off by the short notice and questioned whether renting the Best Western hotel was a long-term shelter solution.”
“The town had no idea,” Foley said. “There’s some relay of the messaging there that just doesn’t happen, that probably historically has never happened and hasn’t been set up yet to happen.”
