A Columbia detention facility is scheduled to close next month.
State Department of Corrections director Bill Byars said the Watkins Pre-Release Center along St. Andrews Terrace Road in St. Andrews will close March 17.
Its inmates will be transferred to Manning Detention Center along Beckman Drive, off Farrow Road, bringing that facility’s inmate count to 550. Byars said the move won’t bring with it any layoffs and will allow the department to use the facility for office and administrative needs.
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Watkins opened in 1983 and has served mainly as a last stop for inmates before reintroduction to the general public. Byars said Watkins’ staff will be sent to other area prisons, and its interim warden, David Dunlop, will return to a previous position at the Palmer Pre-Release Center in Florence.
Byars said the closing is part of a re-evaluation of each of the state’s 28 prisons as the Corrections Department tries to cope with dwindling funds and a possible merger with the state Probation, Parole and Pardon Services.
R. Darren Price