Tom Green County commissioners voted unanimously this week to end negotiations to build a faith-based Texas prison after 17 months of talks. The long-running discussion over the proposal by Corrections Concepts Inc. to build such a facility ended quickly and without discussion from commissioners, the San Angelo Standard-Times reported.

The action had been expected after last week's announcement that three local people had resigned from the Dallas-based company's board of directors. In March, Forrest Watson, new chief executive for the company, asked for at least two months to prepare more detailed financial information. But the commissioners didn't set a timetable.

Corrections Concepts was the only group that responded to a county request for proposals to build a prison. The request followed a CCI pitch to commissioners about a faith-based prison, which was expected to hold about 623 inmates and cost about $35 million.

The prison would have been for inmates with one or two years remaining in their sentences who volunteered for the program. Proponents of the prison said it could influence inmates' lives through religion, and that it would create needed jobs in San Angelo.

"Adding jobs was always one of my primary reasons for being willing to look at the prison project," County Judge Mike Brown said. "We need sustainable, long-term jobs because we continue to lose manufacturing."

But critics pointed to safety and water use concerns, and said the prison wouldn't bring a positive economic benefit. They also feared taxpayers would have to pay if the prison failed.