Missouri gets a new prison for women today although the women won’t get the prison for several more weeks.

The state’s overcrowded women’s prison system will get relief in a couple of months when inmates from the 120-year old Chillicothe prison move into a new women’s penitentiary.

The old Chillicothe prison and the newer Vandalia prison are struggling to keep up with a 150 percent growth in women inmates in the last decade.

The ribbon will be cut for the ceremonial opening of the new Chillicothe Correctional Center at mid-day today.. Inmates will start moving in in October, probably, after final construction details are wrapped up, the systems are tested and the staff is trained.

State corrections director Larry Crawford thinks this new prison will solve the problem of housing women prisoners for years.

The new hundred-million dollar prison will hold more than 16-hundred inmates, more than three times the capacity of the original Chillicothe prison. About 560 people will work there, with a payroll of almost 16-million dollars.

The old prison will become the property of the city.

Download Bob Priddy’s story (:60 mp3)