On June 1 there will be no more state prisoners in Polk County. There also will be no more of the 160 employees who work at the Demilly Corrections Institute working in Polk County.

That state prison in Polk City is one of seven being closed, according to the Department of Corrections. Four work camps are also closing.

The closing of the Polk City facility will save the state nearly $6 million. The state projects it will save $75.7 million with all the closings.

Demilly, which has 342 inmates and 160 employees, including 118 full-time employees, is scheduled to be closed by June 1. The facility opened in February 2009 to prepare inmates for work release and help them re-enter into society.

No inmates will be released early from the closure, but whether or not all 1,293 employees from these facilities will still have jobs is not yet known.

Demilly Warden Roderick James had no comment on the closings or what will happen with the employees, but Corrections Secretary Kenneth S. Tucker, said, “I’m not going to guarantee we can place everyone.”

He said remaining prisons have about 116,000 beds for 100,000 current inmates.

The facility in Polk City supervises the Bartow Work Release Center, Tarpon Springs Work Release Center, Largo Residential Re-Entry Center, Suncoast Work Release Center (male) and St. Petersburg Work Release Center.

Tucker said facilities are being closed based on a scoring system that considered such items as cost per inmate and community impact, which counts the loss of business to local vendors. He said Thursday the decision was strictly business.

Other prisons being closed are Broward Correctional Institution in Fort Lauderdale, Gainesville Correctional Institution in Alachua County, Hillsborough Correctional Institution near Tampa, Indian River Correctional Institution in Vero Beach, Jefferson Correctional Institution in Monticello and both units of New River Correctional Institution in Raiford.

Work camps closing are River Junction Work Camp in Chattahoochee, Caryville Work Camp in Washington County, Hendry Work Camp in Immokalee and Levy Forestry Camp in Ocala.

Currently, the state is trying to privatize about 30 state prison facilities in South Florida. There is now an appeal on a trial judge’s ruling that the state’s prison privatization plan is unconstitutional because it was part of the annual budget instead of a stand-alone law.

All of the latest shutdowns and inmate moves should be finished by July. Tucker said the closed facilities could be kept for later use, if the inmate population spikes in the future, or could be sold by the state’s Department of Management Services.

– Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.