JEFFERSON CITY — As a part of fiscal year 2017 budget negotiations, the Senate has passed House Bill 2009, dealing with Department of Corrections funding, on to the final stages of approval. Under the proposed budget, funding for the Department would be increased by 3 percent to around $731 million. HB 2009 would also allocate $678,877 to fund the opening of a new housing unit at the Chillicothe Women’s Prison.
The Chillicothe Correctional Center (CCC) currently has a 96-bed housing unit that is not being used. The funds distributed to the Center would be used to staff that unit. The population at CCC is increasing at an unsustainable level and the prison has stated that, as of January 2016, they were over the Center’s designed capacity by 289 inmates. House Bill 2009 funding would help increase the space available for the prison population as well as start up a new housing unit at the Center.
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