Gov. Josh Shapiro’s Department of Corrections has named the two state prisons that it would close as part of efficiency efforts in the 2025-26 budget year.

The recommendation from the state Department of Corrections is to close the 110-year-old State Correctional Institution at Rockview in Centre County, where the last handful of the state’s death sentences were carried out in the 1990s; and Quehanna Boot Camp in Clearfield County.

The recommendations come less than a week after Shapiro proposed closing two unnamed prisons in his $51.4 billion state budget proposal.

The department’s recommendations, while certainly setting the path forward on that plan, are not final. Monday’s notice kicks off a required minimum three-month public comment period that will include public hearings in the affected communities.

The prison closure proposal has already drawn a strong and swift pushback from the union representing the state’s corrections officers, which has raised concerns of overcrowding at facilities that would receive the transferred inmates, and security concerns that flow from that.

After Monday’s announcement, John Eckenrode, president of the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association, said the union will “vigorously fight” the Rockview and Quehanna closures.

Besides the public safety concerns, Eckenrode said in a statement, “this proposal ignores how it will devastate the families of our members, who will now have their lives turned upside down, and the local communities that depend on these facilities for jobs and economic development.”

But the department believes it has the headroom to do this safely.

Consider, the last time that the state closed one of its prisons, SCI-Retreat in 2020, DOC’s inmate population was 44,967 in the preceding December. The system’s inmate population as of December 2024 was 38,252.

After removing the Rockview and Quehanna beds, the remaining 22 state prisons would be operating at a system-wide capacity of 85.9 percent, according to the department’s December 2024 population report.

In addition, Corrections Secretary Laurel Harry said Monday that the department is committed to providing positions for all Rockview and Quehanna staff within 67 miles of the affected institutions.

“Every single affected staff member will be guaranteed an offer of a job at their existing pay and classification,” Harry said in the press release announcing the recommendations.

The department says Rockview employs 658 and Quehanna 234 officers and staff.

The department also announced plans to close two state-run Community Corrections Centers in Wernersville, Berks County and Waynesburg, Greene County. Those centers, essentially halfway houses for inmates nearing their release dates, are expected to close in approximately three months.

The department said members of its executive team were onsite at each of the four locations Monday to speak with local leadership about next steps.

After years of tough-on-crime laws and policing policies pushed Pennsylvania’s inmate count over 50,000 in 2012, criminal justice reforms have seen steady declines in the inside population over the last decade.

The changes permitted courts to steer more low-level offenders away from state prisons through the use of electronic monitoring programs, halfway houses and the like.

In the DOC, meanwhile, there were enhanced efforts to get drug and alcohol and other treatment services to inmates and parolees who need them; and a new focus on job training for exiting inmates to help them become more employable upon release.

The prison count dropped under 40,000 during the coronavirus pandemic, and has stayed under that benchmark ever since.

If fully implemented, the closures of Rockview, Quehanna Boot Camp and the two community corrections centers are expected to save the commonwealth $10 million in the upcoming fiscal year, with savings exceeding $100 million annually in future fiscal years.

The DOC noted Monday that Rockview is the second-oldest facility in the DOC system now, and it is expected to need $74 million in upgrades over the next five years. It currently houses 2,148 inmates.

Quehanna Boot Camp was built in 1957 and acquired by the state in 1991.

One of the DOC’s smallest facilities, it houses 348 inmates. Quehanna is specifically programmed for lower-risk inmates, but DOC’s steering committee believes that programming can be relocated to other facilities.

Harry pledged Monday to carefully consider the closure recommendations and all stakeholder feedback “in a manner that is transparent and considerate of everyone impacted, including staff, the incarcerated population and their loved ones, and the communities of Centre, Clearfield, and surrounding counties.”

The department said public comment on the proposed closures may be submitted via email to ra-crdocclosepa.gov or by leaving a voicemail at 888-316-8950. The public hearings have not yet been scheduled.

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