District's Oak Hill To Close

WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) -- The District's controversial youth prison, Oak Hill Reformatory, is closing next week.

The Fenty administration is withholding comment and refusing all interview requests until the formal ribbon cutting for a new state of the art facility takes place on May 29th.

The $44 million "New Beginnings Youth Center" is being built nearby on the same Laurel, Maryland grounds. It will hold only 60 inmates, meaning some prisoners from Oak Hill are being re-located to group homes in the District.

It isn't clear how many youth will be brought in to the city.

DC Councilman Phil Mendelson was given a tour of the "New Beginnings Youth Center" today and said he too is asking about the numbers and pushing for transparency to help reduce any community fears about safety.

Mendelson, who has fought with the administration over a crime bill, likes what he sees in the new facility; Mendelson says in the past, city's have been warehousing youth and not rehabilitating them.