Salavantis, others raise several concerns over prison closings

Times Leader - 1/24/2017

Jan. 24--HARRISBURG -- Every person from each area that could be affected by the closing of a state prison gave many reasons why their facilities should stay open, but one person -- Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis -- offered an impassioned argument against closing any prison.

Salavantis attended a public hearing -- convened Monday by the state Senate's Policy and Judiciary committees -- on the Wolf administration's plans to close two prison facilities before the end of June. The Department of Corrections is expected to announce its decision on Thursday -- just 21 days after it "blindsided" legislators, prison workers and the five communities under consideration with news of the possible closures.

Salavantis was joined by Luzerne County Manager David Pedri, state Representatives Gerald Mullery, R-Newport Township, and Karen Boback, R-Harveys Lake, and Newport Township Manager Peter Wanchisen. State Senators John Yudichak, D-Plymouth Township, and Lisa Baker, R-Lehman Township, sat on the panel for the hearing and each asked several questions of all who testified.

Salavantis cautioned that closing prisons could destabilize prison environments elsewhere in Pennsylvania and endanger the lives of corrections officers and inmates.

"When prisons are overcrowded, violent assaults increase," Salavantis said. "Instead of closing prisons, Pennsylvania should continue to invest in rehabilitative programs that will reduce recidivism, which in turn makes our communities safer. We can save more money by continuing reforms in our criminal justice system rather than just shuttering two prisons."

Salavantis, her voice rising as she continued her remarks, said the state's prisons are over-crowded now and closing two would just exasperate the problem.

"We should never risk the safety of corrections officers or residents to balance a budget," Salavantis said. "These officers would have to travel far to work at another facility, taking them away from their families and their communities. And this is all being done with a 21-day notice and no public hearings. I think it's terrible."

When she was finished testifying, Salavantis walked out of the hearing room and paused to offer more comments. She said closing any prison would increase risks for corrections officer.

"I don't want to see another C.O. death," Salavantis said. "You can't put inmates in places where inmates are not supposed to be -- such as day rooms or gymnasiums."

Pedri testified that the administration should have a complete understanding of the financial costs of closing two prisons before Thursday's deadline. He highlighted a recent case where the commonwealth reimbursed Luzerne County more than $4,000 for prosecuting a prison assault case at SCI-Dallas.

"As a former prosecutor and now county manager, I can tell you that closing prisons prematurely will have unforeseen consequences that could jeopardize the security of some of the state's facilities and drive up other expenses such as reimbursements to county prosecutors and public defenders, mandatory overtime and civil litigation that could eviscerate any projected savings from shuttering two prisons," Pedri said.

The hearing began with testimony from Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel, who assured the senators that the decision to close two facilities was born out of Gov. Tom Wolf's demand that $180 million be cut from the DOC budget. He said politics was never a reason, insisting that the proposal to shut two prisons was never intended to be a tool to get legislators to move on budget negotiations.

The Senate Hearing Room was packed with guards and their supporters, who are pressing lawmakers to oppose the closings, as well as elected officials from each of the five areas that could be affected by Thursday's announcement.

Wetzel insisted that he would never put his staff or prison communities through such an ordeal for a political stunt, and he argued that the move is a natural response to a shrinking inmate population.

"This is the new normal, and if you look around the country, this is what you see," Wetzel said.

Jason Bloom, president of the Pennsylvania state corrections officers' union, predicted the move would mean stacking inmates like "cord wood." The DOC officials repeatedly said that closing two prisons would not result in unsafe or overcrowded conditions at other facilities, but Bloom vehemently refuted that claim.

"In short, this is a sham that is poorly thought out and plays with the lives of countless Pennsylvanians," Bloom said. "Squeezing more of our existing inmate population into fewer prisons is a recipe for disaster. There is no way you can convince anybody who works inside a prison that the chance of violence will not go up."

Despite all of the arguments, from economic impact, to prison and community safety, to the validity of the statistics being used to make this decision, Wetzel said that "as of today" the decision on which two prisons will close will be made on Thursday.

Yudichak said Monday's hearing confirmed that rushing to close two prisons could have significant and irreversible economic and public safety consequences for those communities where these facilities operate.

"From the beginning, I have asked the governor to ignore Thursday's deadline and allow the budgetary process to develop, so that we can exhaust all of our options and present a balanced and responsible budget that will keep all five prisons open until Pennsylvania's prison population has been reduced to its operational capacity," Yudichak said.

Yudichak noted that while Pennsylvania's prison population has declined slightly, it still remains--at over 49,000 inmates--36 percent higher than it was in 2000.

Mullery said if the prison population continues to decline naturally, then there could be a time to evaluate how Pennsylvania houses and rehabilitates its inmates.

"But that is not today's reality," he said. "Instead, we are considering closing two prisons at a time when the prison population is higher than the DOC's optimum levels."

Mullery and Yudichak pressed Wetzel for "real numbers." They said the impact of closing SCI-Retreat locally presents some dire real numbers -- the loss of 400 jobs, an annual economic loss of $57.4M, $1.6M in funding cuts to Greater Nanticoke Area School District, $400,000 in cuts to Newport Township, and $250,000 in cuts to Luzerne County.

"These cuts are exacerbated by the current economic state in Luzerne County," Mullery said. "We have a 6.3 percent unemployment rate, 15.6 percent poverty rate with 43.4 percent of our residents earning less than $35,000 annually. Moreover, 17 percent of our households received food stamps and 19.5 percent of our residents are eligible for Medical Assistance.

"I believe everyone can agree when you look at the real numbers, closure of SCI-Retreat would have the greatest impact locally of any institution under consideration for closure."

Following the hearing, numerous state lawmakers joined prison workers at a rally in the Capitol rotunda to protest the state plan to close two prisons by July 1.

SCI-Retreat is one of the five prisons under consideration for closure, along with SCI-Waymart, SCI-Frackville, SCI Mercer and SCI-Pittsburgh.

Baker called the administration's decision a "rush to judgment" that lacks community consultation and buy-in.

Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.

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