Former prison in Connecticut may become a career and technical high school

The site of a former prison in Storrs, Conn., may become the home of a technical high school.

The former Bergin Correctional Institution has been owned the past six years by the University of Connecticut, but ownership has now been returned to the state, the university says.

The Connecticut Technical Education & Career System (CTECS) is assessing the property as a potential site of a regional technical high school; it would replace Windham Tech in Willimantic.

The site, which has about 35 acres, will be transferred to the state Office of Policy & Management, along with about 25 acres of adjacent undeveloped university property.

The site consists of four buildings and associated parking. Bergin Correctional Institution closed in August 2011.

The university acquired the land and its buildings in 2015 and planned to use the space for various administrative, research, and operational purposes -- but infrastructure conditions and other factors limited its use.