Vermont Inmates Move From Kentucky to Michigan

The planned move of 280 Vermont prison inmates from a private prison in Kentucky to one in Michigan has been completed.

Mike Touchette, director of facility operations for the Vermont Department of Corrections, tells The Associated Press the move was completed Monday and went off without a hitch.

Touchette says the inmates were transferred on two flights, moving from the Corrections Corporation of America's Lee Adjustment Center in Kentucky to a facility operated by the GEO Group in Baldwin, Michigan.

Vermont Corrections officials say the GEO facility has several advantages: It costs less, is more modern and secure and is about 160 miles closer to Vermont than the Kentucky facility.

For almost two decades, Vermont sent hundreds of inmates to prisons and jails out of state to save on costs and overcrowding.