(Michigan City, IN) - Michigan City has received an early Christmas present in the form of a preliminary agreement donating the Indiana State Prison grounds to the city.

 

Mayor Angie Nelson Deuitch, who began pushing for the state to close the prison a few years ago, made the announcement at this week’s city council meeting.  She and Governor Eric Holcomb signed the documentation making the transaction possible.

 

“This was a significant step for us,” she said.

 

Deuitch said the agreement calls for the city to be given the property in January of 2029.  The prison will relocate to the new Westville Correctional Facility once the ongoing construction of that penal institution is completed within the next few years.  The current prison on that parcel, which was originally a state mental institution, is going to be torn down.

 

Deuitch also told the city council there were plenty of skeptics when she began her push for the over 150 year old state prison to close, believing such a facility was not a fit for the long term economic revitalization efforts now planned for that area of the city.

 

“People didn’t believe it would happen but it’s going to happen,” she said.

 

No formal decisions have been made on what to do with the state prison property on the city's west side, but demolition is anticipated with construction of new workforce housing believed to be part of the vision.