BUNKER HILL - If Gov. Mike Pence has his way, Miami County will be home to more prisoners than ever.
Pence is proposing the state spend $51 million to expand two Indiana prisons as part of his two-year budget, which was submitted last week to the State Budget Committee.
Amy Kent, communications director for the Indiana Department of Correction, said $18.2 million of the funding would be used to construct two new cell housing units at Miami Correctional Facility.
Another $32.6 million would add three new cell blocks at Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, located about 20 miles north of Vincennes.
Pence said in his budget the state needs more prison space to meet the projected increase in the incarcerated population.
Kent said the two cell blocks at Miami Correctional Facility would increase the prison’s inmate capacity by 512 beds.
The high-medium security facility, which was established in 1998 on 200 acres that was formerly part of Grissom Air Force Base, currently has a capacity of 3,188.
The three new cell blocks at Wabash Valley Correctional Facility would add 800 additional beds, Kent said. The facility can currently house 2,200 inmates.
Kent said the five new buildings would utilize the remaining unused building pads currently within the prisons’ security fences.
She said $51 million is only the estimated cost to build the units, and does not include the cost to operate them.
Pence is also calling for a $43 million increase in the IDOC’s funding over two years to support operations and staffing.
In total, Pence’s proposed budget totals $31.1 billion. That’s up by $781 million from the state’s current budget, which was approved in 2013.