Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday the state will use the shuttered Baker Correctional Institution in Sanderson for its second detention facility, instead of a previously proposed site at Camp Blanding in Clay County.
Speaking at the Baker County facility, DeSantis said the center will have room for up to 1,300 detainees in the shuttered center.
“You talk about ready-made infrastructure — this was something that was very appealing from that perspective because it would require us to do a lot less in standing up than we would at Blanding, and far less than we had to do at Alligator Alcatraz,” DeSantis said, referencing the state’s first detention site in the deep Everglades.
HARDWICK GIVES FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ
The governor said Camp Blanding could have cost up to $100 million. By comparison, the Baker County option would cost about $6 million.
DeSantis said the Baker County option was submitted to federal homeland security officials months ago as various sites were considered.
Located about 18 miles from the Baker County Detention Center, the prison shut down in 2021 because of correctional staffing shortages.
DeSantis did not specify on when the Baker County site would open.
