Homeless families, including migrants, who are placed at a former correctional center turned overflow shelter will sleep in a prison that was last formally inspected by health regulators in 2015, the year the facility closed, according to public records.

Gov. Maura Healey plans to open up the Bay State Correctional Center in Norfolk next month for waitlisted families seeking entrance to the emergency shelter system. The move is part of a trend of Healey turning to state-owned properties to house newly arrived migrants and local residents.

State Rep. Marcus Vaughn, a Republican from neighboring Wrentham, said he toured the facility that’s right next to MCI-Norfolk Monday and found it to be “definitely a bit in disrepair.”

“It literally looks like everything was dropped and nothing was dealt with since 2015. I feel like it’s going to be a huge capital expenditure to get it to the point where it is a livable space for these people,” Vaughn told the Herald. “It’s definitely not a space that we would expect, I don’t think anyone would expect, or be okay with having young children and families and expecting mothers.”

The Department of Public Health’s last inspection of the facility in 2015 by an environmental analyst found multiple health and sanitary code violations, including “inadequate floor space” in some dorm-like cells at the prison, according to a publicly available copy of the report.

The report also found everything from poorly maintained plumbing to clogged drains and multiple occurrences of soap scum, peeling paint, and mold in showers and bathrooms across the facility to leaky pipes in a boiler room for the administration area.

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“This facility does not comply with the department’s regulations cited above. In accordance with 105 CMR 451.404, please submit a plan of correction within 10 working days of receipt of this notice, indicating the specific corrective steps to be taken, a timetable for such steps, and the date by which correction will be achieved,” the inspection report said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Correction said a “plan of correction” based on inspection was submitted to the Department of Public Health but a copy of the document was not provided to the Herald on Wednesday.

Reports were not available for the Bay State Correctional Center for 2016 onward, a review of yearly inspections found. All active, state-run correctional facilities, county jails, and houses of corrections undergo a yearly inspection by the Department of Public Health to check against a lengthy list of health and sanitation standards.

State law does not require health and sanitary code inspections of prisons when the facilities are vacant, the DOC spokesperson said.

But officials have kept up with occupancy permits for and performed regular walkthroughs of the Bay State Correctional Center to make sure building infrastructure — heating, plumbing, and electrical functions — are in working order, according to the DOC.

A team of experts has been tasked with reviewing the facility and managing any needed improvements in anticipation of the prison’s conversion into a shelter, the spokesperson said. The Department of Occupational Liscensure will conduct inspections and the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance will handle any improvements.

This was the same process used to prepare other shelter sites like Joint Base Cape Cod and a National Guard Armory in Lexington, the spokesperson said.

Vaughn said he did not see any subcontractors or contractors working on the site during his visit on Monday.

“I don’t know if they are there at this point trying to get the facility ready. But even again, from Friday to where we’re sitting here on Wednesday, and we’re now just having our first call with the town administrators and the select board? Questions need to be answered,” Vaughn said.

The Healey administration was scheduled to talk with local officials on Wednesday, Vaughn and Norfolk Town Administrator Justin Casanova-Davis said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Public Health did not respond to a Herald inquiry by deadline.

The former prison served as a medium-security facility and also a pre-release center for people about to end their stint in jail, according to state officials. The Healey administration plans to house up to 450 people, including migrants, at the site.

The former correctional center is nestled about 2 miles away from Norfolk center and is situated directly next to MCI-Norfolk, a separate medium-security state prison that remains open. Vaughn and Casanova-Davis both said parts of the road leading from the Bay State Correctional Center to the center of Norfolk do not have sidewalks for people to walk on.

Casanova-Davis said he is attempting to schedule a tour of the former prison but was told by the Healey administration that the facility is “in good shape.”

“They need to make some repairs there but it’s in relatively good shape, according to the state and their building inspector,” he said in an interview Wednesday.

Families are slated to sleep in dormitory-style rooms with a windowed door and another larger window letting in natural light. The accommodations are far from the stereotypical barred prison cells but still have largely barren walls and tiled floors.

This is the first time the Healey administration has turned to a former prison to house people, a decision that surprised some advocates and has them urging the administration to quickly clean up the space.

“We want to make sure that any space that’s being used as a shelter for families and children is safe and doesn’t promote further damage to children,” Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless Associate Director Kelly Turley told the Herald at the State House. “We need to add on capacity, but it needs to be done in a thoughtful way that upholds the dignity of families.”