Updated 3:13 p.m. April 2.
Legislators representing Centre and Clearfield counties joined corrections officers and staff on Tuesday at the state Capitol in Harrisburg to rally against the proposed closures of Rockview prison and Quehanna Boot Camp.
“We are absolutely committed to fight like hell to keep Rockview and Quehanna open and to find the best solutions for the workers, their families our communities and frankly our commonwealth as a whole,” said state Rep. Paul Takac, D-College Township, whose 82nd District includes Rockview.
The rally was the latest public display of opposition to the closures, which have raised worries about impacts on employees and their families, inmates and local communities. The Centre County Board of Commissioners estimated that he tri-county area including Centre, Clearfield and Clinton faced an annual economic hit of $118 million if the closures go through.
“Closing a jail is a death sentence for their communities,” Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association President John Eckenrode said. “In today’s America it’s virtually impossible for small towns to replace a facility that employs close to 500 people. Simply put, these decisions are devastating to the communities the commonwealth is choosing to abandon.
The Department of Corrections on Feb. 10 announced that had accepted a steering committees recommendations and is proposing the closure of Rockview and Quehanna, as well as state-run Community Corrections Centers in Berks and Greene counties, in a move Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration says would save the commonwealth $10 million over the next year and $100 million in the long term.
The 658 staff members at Rockview and 234 at Quehanna would be offered positions with the same classification at one of five state correctional institutions located within 67 miles.
But Eckenrode said that for most, that will mean a drive of at least an hour in each direction. The only exception would be for Rockview staff who transfer to the adjacent Benner Township prison, but he noted Benner currently has only 39 vacancies, while hundreds of Rockview employees would be seeking positions.
“Our members, dedicated public servants who risk their lives on a daily basis, will now have to spend two hours in a car each day away from their families,” Eckenrode said. “Their financial reward? An extra $500 out of their family budget each month because our department doesn’t help with expenses. Our members are forced to make an awful decision. Should I stay where I raised my children and deal with the extra cost of gas and long hours away from home, or should I uproot my family and move to another town? The administration at the Department of Corrections in Camp Hill doesn’t have to answer a question like this unless it comes with a promotion or more money.”
Eckenrode also expressed concerns about fluctuating inmate populations. In 2018 and 2019, he said, violence in state prisons “was some of the worst I’ve seen,” at a time when 21 correctional institutions were at over 90% capacity. Since then, inmate populations have decreased and so has violence, but Eckenrode noted that most violent incidents have occurred at seven prisons operating at the highest capacity, and he worried about the safety ramifications of moving inmates into fewer facilities.
“Closing these facilities will create a potential powderkeg of trouble that many of us had hoped was a relic of the past,” Eckenrode said. “Saving money at the expense of our members is too high of a price to pay.”
According to the DOC, the system is operating at about 82% capacity. But Takac said he wants details on department’s recent recalculation of operational capacity and whether the excess beds are “really available.”
State Sen. Cris Dush, R-Pine Creek Township, whose district includes Rockview, noted that SCI-Pittsburgh was closed in 2005 but reopened again two years later because of an increase in the inmate population before finally closing in 2017.
SEIU Local 668 represents staff who work in treatment and rehabilitation at state correctional facilities. Nina Coffey, the union’s secretary-treasurer, said her members’ work helps keep the public safe, provides needed treatment and reduces recidivism, but that they often feel “invisible and deeply underappreciated.”
“We worry that with the closure of more prisons and the possible attrition of more staff that we will again see overcrowding and understaffing, leading to worsening outcomes for staff and inmates,” Coffey said. “With this in mind, fundamentally corrections workers deserve more respect than the have their lives, for many their very life’s work, upended by a budget proposal.”
Eckenrode and several legislators also questioned how much savings would actually be realized by the closures.
The DOC cited $74 million in repairs and upgrades required over the next five years at Rockview prison and nearly $6 million at Quehanna among the reasons they were selected.
Eckenrode called the savings “budgetary gimmickry.” Dush said he learned that work has already started or contracts have been awarded for some of the repairs. Takac said he wants answers about just how much has already been committed to the repairs at Rockview, whether they are in specific areas that can be worked around and how much will need to be completed regardless of whether the facilities close.
Costs for maintaining facilities after closure was another issue raised.
Eckenrode said the commonwealth has spent upwards of $150 million on maintaining state prisons and hospitals that have been closed for years.
Rockview shares water, sewer and other infrastructure with Benner and nearby businesses that would need to be maintained, Takac added. Corrections officials acknowledged at a February budget hearing that the state would need to maintain some of the Rockview property’s 5,700 acres.
“They need to come to us with real answers on what they’re looking to do and how they’re looking to implement it,” Dush said. “Thus far we haven’t received any of that information.”
The future of specialized programs also remains in question.
Quehanna Boot Camp is “a six-month, military-style program with a drug and alcohol treatment component,” according to the DOC. State Sen. Wayne Langerholc, R-Richland Township, whose district includes Quehanna, said the boot camp produces the lowest recidivism rate and highest number of GEDs, while also equipping inmates with trade skills.
“Why would we want to turn our back on that progress?” Langerholc said. “The decision to close these facilities is short-sighted and ill-conceived. There is a multitude of offerings that they provide. What you do at Quehana and Rockview has a profound impact in keeping with those vital tenets of corrections.”
Dallas Kephart, R-Decatur Township, whose district includes Quehanna said he has heard from former inmates and their families about how the boot camp changed their lives for the better.
“What more could you have than former inmates and their families coming forward tod demand that these institutions not shut down if you want to talk about the effectiveness and the rehabilitation measures that are done at these institutions,” Kephart said.
Rockview, meanwhile, is home to a plethora of speciality programs like the forestry program and woodworking facility and specialized health units such as a neurocognitive unit. Though at the budget hearing officials said special programs and units would be transferred to other facilities, including Benner, Takac said he hasn’t gotten clear answers.
“These are all critical questions that must be asked and frankly we deserve full and transparent answers to those,” Takac said.
The issue is a bipartisan one, state Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, R-Bellefonte, said and one that deserves more transparency.
“We’re talking about families, families that right now are held in limbo,” Benninghoff said. “And why? The common theme I hear today is lack of transparency. Why does the legislature elected by you the people, that represents you, have to learn that prisons might close in a budget address. For those that live around there, a week later we are told it is our prison. Two prisons within 30 miles of each other. What kind of help does that provide for future jobs and for the jobs of those employees waiting there?”
He worried that the upcoming public hearings for the proposed closures mandated by Act 113 will have a foregone conclusion.
“The people of Pennsylvania deserve to know what’s going on,” Benninghoff said. “I don’t want the Act 113 hearings to be an exercise in futility and that’s what it feels like is going to happen. ‘We went through the motions, we did the hearings but we’re going to close it anyhow.’”
Like Benninghoff, state Rep. Scott Conklin, D-Rush Township, said the potential closures transcend party lines.
“It’s time that we do what we’re supposed to do,” Conklin said. “We don’t stand up for a certain few. We don’t stand up for Republican, Democrat, Independent, voter, nonvoter. We stand up for the people Each individual that stood up here and spoke because their family, their friends, their community depends on this.”
Takac, meanwhile, has held three “listening sessions” so he can “be a better advocate” for those affected and has two more scheduled: from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the State College Municipal Building and 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Monday at the Snow Shoe Township Building.
The official public hearings for community members to hear from and provide feedback to DOC officials will be held for Quehanna from 5 to 7 p.m. on April 10 at Karthaus Community Alliance Church and for Rockview from 5 to 7 p.m. on April 15 at the Bald Eagle Area High School/Middle School auditorium.
The proposal is in the midst of a mandatory minimum three-month period for community members to provide feedback, which in addition to the April public hearings can be submitted via email to ra-crdocclose@pa.gov or by leaving a voicemail at 888-316-8950.
This story was updated to reflect a change in location for Paul Takac’s listening session in State College.
