Ellington

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Department of Corrections is temporarily closing its community work center in Alcorn County.

The decision was announced Wednesday. It leaves the state with 15 work centers, where inmates provide free labor for counties.

The department closed a work center in May in Jefferson County.

Corrections Commissioner Marshall Fisher says in a news release that the 13 employees at the Alcorn County center will be transferred to other jobs in the prison system.

He says closing the center is not related to his Oct. 29 order to remove 240 state inmates from the Alcorn County Regional Correctional Facility. Those prisoners were moved to other facilities after investigators said they found widespread violations, including the discovery that inmates had crossed state lines while doing community service.