New Missouri women's prison nearing completion

CHILLICOTHE, Mo. (AP) -- A new women's prison nearing completion in Chillicothe will help accommodate a growing number of female offenders.

Corrections Director Larry Crawford and Gov. Matt Blunt were overseeing a ribbon-cutting at the facility on Wednesday.

The Chillicothe Correctional Center will house up to 1,636 prisoners, more than three times the capacity of the old institution in that same northwest Missouri city.

Corrections officials say Missouri's female prison population has increased 150 percent over the last 10 years. It's meant that the state's other women's prison in Vandalia has exceeded its capacity.