Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has proposed closing a state prison and shuttering four housing units in an open facility, reaping nearly $24 million in savings over the next two years.

Specific buildings have not been identified, according to Andrius Banevicius, a spokesman for the Department of Correction.

The planned closures are included in the biennial budget Malloy released Wednesday and are made possible, the budget document indicates, by the Second Chance Society Initiative, which aims to help low-level offenders become productive members of society, along with reductions in crime and the state's declining prison population.

The state's inmate count has been declining for the past nine years, having reached an all-time high of 19,413 in 2008 in the wake of the July 2007 home invasion/murders of three members of the Petit family in Cheshire. As of Wednesday, there were 14,579 people incarcerated, according to Banevicius.

The state currently is operating 15 correctional facilities. During Malloy's administration, Connecticut has closed the J.B. Gates Correctional Institution in Niantic, the Bergin Correctional Institution in Mansfield, part of the Bridgeport Correctional Center and most recently, four housing units at the Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers.

Other proposed changes in the recommended $599 million Department of Correction budget include an addition of $688,124 for pharmaceutical costs for inmates and a $3 million reduction in unspecified medical costs. The Department plans to work with its provider, Correctional Managed Health Care at the University of Connecticut, to "consider modifying programs and services that do not directly relate to medically necessary care," according to the budget document.

Other agencies that deal with criminal justice would continue to operate with reduced staff under the governor's proposed budget. The Judicial Branch last year absorbed a $77 million, or 13.2 percent reduction to its budget and announced it would be closing four of its 43 courthouses.

The governor's recommended Judicial Branch budget of $496.7 million for each of the next two fiscal years, like most budgets for state agencies, does not reflect any changes in the collective bargaining agreements that cover about three-fourths of the branch's 3,700 full-time employees. All of the union contracts expired in June 2016 and negotiations are ongoing.

Malloy's recommendations for the Judicial Branch also include postponing a 3 percent pay increase for judges from July 1, 2017, to 2019, for a savings of $1.4 million in each of the next two years.

The Judicial Branch anticipates savings of about $1.5 million over the next year due to the opening of a newly constructed courthouse in Torrington that will consolidate under one roof services now offered in six different locations.

Thomas A. Siconolfi, executive director of administrative services for the Judicial Branch, said the branch is down 600 employees from the number authorized by the General Assembly, mostly due to staff retirements and people leaving for other positions, and the proposed budget, if adopted by the General Assembly, would mean that the branch must continue operating under difficult circumstances.

"We've done some very difficult things this past year," Siconolfi said. "This requires us to maintain the discipline and the reductions we've already taken."

The branch has several capital initiatives, the biggest to focus on increasing security in its buildings, according to Siconolfi. Malloy's budget recommends $32 million in capital funding for the branch over the next two years.

The Division of Criminal Justice, the agency that employs Connecticut's prosecutors, last year saw layoffs of per-diem employees, vacant positions left unfilled and the abolishment of funding for task forces devoted to solving cold cases and reducing shootings in Hartford. The Governor's proposal for the agency contains no major changes to the $50 million budget.

In an interview earlier this week, Chief State's Attorney Kevin T. Kane said the reductions negatively impacted the division's ability to handle cases at all levels. While crime might be down, the amount of work needed to prosecute cases has "ballooned," Kane said, due in part to the availability of surveillance videos and police recordings of interrogations.

"Our inspectors and (major crime) prosecutors are probably spending 30 to 40 percent of their time listening to and watching video recording and interrogations and witness statements," he said. "What used to be 20 minutes reading a police report is now hours."

He said that once police start using body cameras, the work of prosecutors would again multiply.

k.florin@theday.com