(AP) -- State mental officials hope to move about 44 violent sex offenders from an old hospital near Columbia to a state prison early next year.
Mental Health Department attorney Mark Binkley told a meeting in Columbia on Monday night the agency is working to move the offenders from the old Crafts-Farrow State Hospital to a state prison.
About 70 people attended the meeting, worried the inmates are being housed in a facility near a recreation center, a child development center and a church.
A private company operates the current facility. Officials have said the facility is safe, with a security fence and guards both inside and outside the buildings.
Officials say the 90 beds in the new unit could be filled by 2015.
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