DEQUINCY, La. (AP) — Officials say C. Paul Phelps Correctional Center began its final month of full operations by shipping a quarter of its inmate population to Angola State Penitentiary.

Warden Robert Henderson tells the American Press five buses carrying 230 prisoners departed DeQuincy Monday, headed for the maximum-security prison in West Feliciana Parish, near the Louisiana-Mississippi border.

The state announced in mid-September that Phelps, a medium-security prison with 942 beds, is to close by the end of October.

Jimmy LeBlanc, secretary of the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections, said that closing the facility will save $2.6 million this fiscal year and $11.85 million in the next fiscal year.

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