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CANON CITY, COLO. -- Due to crime rates dropping, both in the state of Colorado and nationally, the South Tower at Centennial Correctional Facility in Canon City is closing in February 2013.

The prison was originally approved in 2003 when crime rates were rising. Due to delays in construction and other setbacks, it wasn't opened until September 2010 when crime had been declining for about five years.

The Governor's Chief of Staff Roxane White said there's benefits and downsides to the shutdown.

"As we look at a difficult situation, it's also really important we recognize we have two very good factors happening at the same time," White said. "The first is that crime is down in Colorado. The second is that we're doing a much better job of working with inmates when we release them.

All inmates at the facility, more commonly known as the Colorado State Penitentiary II, or CSP II, are in solitary confinement. Currently, there are 316 inmates at CSP II. Officials said they'll all be moved slowly before next February, but some will be reintegrated in the general inmate population.

"We had about 47 percent of all the inmates being released from segregation, going directly from administrative segregation inside a high custody prison, to a community," Department of Corrections Executive Director Tom Clements said. "Forty seven percent going directly home to be somebody's next door neighbor, so that's really not the best practice in terms of community safety."

That 47 percent has now decreased to 16 percent; a practice, White said, is better for everyone in the long run.

"When you think about who you want to live in your neighborhood and who you want to be your neighbor, you certainly want someone who has not gone from solitary confinement to your neighborhood," White said. "Instead, you want someone who has gone through a program."

Besides reintegrating many of the hundreds of inmates, the Department of Corrections officials said no employee at the facility will lose their job.

"The plan we have for February's date allows us to reassign the staff, 213 employees, that are in CSP II funding positions, working the housing units," Clements said. "It allows us to reassign those individuals to other positions in the Fremont County Correctional Complex."

Currently, there are about 60 vacancies, according to White. Part of the reason the department is waiting a year to close the facility is to make sure the rest of the workers are not laid off.

"What he'll be doing instead of hiring other people and training them and putting them through the whole intensive training process is we'll be slowly holding those vacancies, moving people out of administrative segregation, then we'll be able to move staff to those positions as well," White said.

As for the actually building, it'll still be ran in 'idle mode.' This means there will be a few people still working in the building, tending to laundry, security, food service and clinical operations. Those services will help maintain the North housing. The Department hopes this will save the state and taxpayers about $13 million a year, starting in fiscal year 2013-14.