Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration on Friday made official the decision to close Rockview state prison in Centre County and Quehanna Boot Camp in Clearfield County.
The closure process will begin immediately and will take place over at least four months, the Department of Corrections wrote in a news release.
Citing cost savings of up to $100 million, declining inmate populations and an opportunity “to align department resources with current needs,” the decision comes two days after a steering committee’s final report and recommendation and seven months after the proposal was first revealed.
“Today’s announcement comes after a thorough review of stakeholder input and analysis of the impact of closure on staff, department operations, the community and the incarcerated population,” DOC Secretary Laurel R. Harry said in a statement on Friday.
The nearly 900 employees at the two facilities will be guaranteed a job with their existing pay and classification at another facility within 67 miles. Rockview is next door to Benner Township state prison, while Clearfield County has Houtzdale state prison — but the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association has said opportunities at those will be limited and suggested many staff will have long commutes to their new location.
About 41% of Rockview’s employees have a Centre County home address, while 70% of Quehanna’s staff live in Clearfield County, according to the steering committee’s report.
The department “will continue to engage with relevant labor unions to transition staff members to nearby PADOC facilities,” according to Friday’s news release. DOC leaders will be visiting both facilities to speak directly with staff.
Inmates “will be gradually transferred to facilities that best meet their individualized programming, security, healthcare and other needs,” according to the DOC.
Boot camp operations along with specialized programming and housing units will be relocated to other facilities and continue to operate.
The closures come despite vociferous pushback from local elected and economic development officials and unions representing prison staff, who say the decision will be detrimental to the rural economies around the facilities, upend families’ lives and have negative effects on inmates.
“This is the wrong decision, at the wrong time and for the wrong reasons,” state Rep. Paul Takac, D-College Township, said in atstaement on Friday. “I believe the evidence and testimony reflected in the final report clearly shows that, which is why I am so disappointed, frustrated and upset.
State Sen. Wayne Langerholc, R-Richland Township, who represents parts of Clearfield and Centre counties, called the final decision “a betrayal of the men and women who depend on these jobs, of the corrections officers who have dedicated their lives to protecting the public, of the families who rely on strong schools and of the communities that deserve to live in safety.”
“Despite bipartisan efforts in the Senate to preserve and modernize the Quehanna Boot Camp, the Governor and Secretary chose to side with a misguided plan that ignores the voices of the people of Clearfield and Centre counties. They chose bureaucrats over citizens, political expedience over sound policy, and ideology over common sense.
Their remarks continued a string of rebukes this week from elected officials who had urged the administration to rethink the proposal since it was first introduced and who derided the final recommendation to close the facilities as a “gut punch,” a “slap in the face,” “misguided” and “ill-conceived.”
“This decision will have devastating consequences for many families and our local communities,” Takac said earlier this wek. “It will take an incredible personal toll on the workers and their families. The longer, more costly, and more dangerous commutes these workers may have if transferred to another facility will also impact responsibilities and opportunities to give back to others, such as volunteering for the local fire and EMS services and community organizations.”
The Centre County Board of Commissioners projected earlier this year that closing the facilities would result in a $117.9 million economic loss across Centre, Clearfield and Clinton counties, including lost wages, indirect jobs, local purchases and per capita funding resulting from the closures.
“Centre County and our neighboring counties will certainly feel the employment and economic impacts of this decision,” Commissioner Mark Higgins said this week.
DOC’s 1,200-page report acknowledges a negative economic impact, citing projections from the Department of Community and Economic Development. In Centre County, they estimate $5.8 million in lost payments to local vendors and $167,000 in lost economic activity for each employee that moves out of the area. For Clearfield, it’s an estimated $1.1 million in lost annual payments to local vendor and $190,000 in economic activity per employee that moves.
But the recommendation says the facilities have extensive capital needs, that Rockview has regularly high vacancy and overtime rates and that the staff, inmates and programs at both facilities can be absorbed by other prisons throughout a system that has is operating at about 82% capacity.
The 110-year-old Rockview, the second oldest facility in Pennsylvania’s system, has upwards of $85 million in deferred maintenance needs over six years, not including $7 million needed to install air conditioning or routine upkeep and repairs, according to the DOC report. Quehanna, meanwhile has up to $7 million in maintenance needs. Neither facility is well equipped to handle an aging inmate population, according to the report.
Still unanswered is what will become of Rockview’s 5,700 acres, much of it farmland between State College and Bellefonte that will no doubt draw significant interest.
Harry and DOC Deputy Secretary Christopher Oppman said at a budget hearing earlier this year that the commonwealth would need to maintain at least some of it because it serves the adjacent Benner state prison. The report, meanwhile, recommends that Rockview’s forestry program be transferred to Benner.
But the DOC would not be involved in the sale or transfer of land, the steering committee wrote. That would fall to the Department of General Services, and typically could only occur by legislation.
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission’s Historic Preservation Office said that Rockview “is eligible for listing in the National Register under two criteria related to its display of the evolution of Pennsylvania’s penal system and architecture for buildings completed between 1914 and 1974,” according to the steering committee report.
“PHMC recognizes that not all buildings associated with SCI Rockview can be saved; however, PHMC encourages DGS to investigate the feasibility of retention of at least some historic buildings for adaptive reuse or marketing,” the report stated.
The preservation office also “identified several archaeological sites located within or adjacent to SCI Rockview” and recommended an archaeological survey to relocate known and other potentially significant sites.
Takac said this week that he will insist that the properties not become blighted or “a burden borne by local taxpayers,” and will demand that the divestiture of any Rockview land must be “fully open and transparent.”
“I will continue to insist that the state not make backroom sweetheart deals or fail to receive fair value or compensation for any land transfers or sales,” he said. “Further, any future uses or transfers must take into account a significant public and community benefit because that land belongs to us, the people of Pennsylvania, held in trust, and any future changes or decisions must fully take that into account.”
“As we move into the next chapter of this process,” he added on Friday, “I will continue to fight for the best interests of our neighbors, this community and the taxpayers of PA as these facilities wind down operations and decisions are made about what to do with the land, buildings, and other assets going forward.”
