Eleven U.S. Senators from northeastern states are criticizing the federal Bureau of Prisons over plans to turn the women's prison in Danbury into a facility for men.
In a letter dated Friday to Charles E. Samuels, Jr., the bureau's director, the senators say the plan would leave the region without any federal prison beds for women and create a hardship for the inmates' families.
The senators say the plan calls for moving up to 1,000 women from Danbury to a prison in Aliceville, Ala. The transfers are slated to begin this month and be completed by December.
Chris Burke, a spokesman for the bureau of prisons, says the move was needed because of a shortage of beds for men in the system.