The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections has closed SCI Rockview in Centre County and the Quehanna Boot Camp in Clearfield County, and workers, inmates and communities are adapting to their new realities.
The Shapiro administration said was a necessary fiscal decision and would save the commonwealth up to $100 million in the years to come.
The state has moved staff and inmates to their new facilities, and said it did its best to meet everyone’s needs.
That included Jody Murarik, who retired from the Quehanna Boot Camp months before its closure. She said she believes there was something special there.
“I think it was wrong to close that facility. I don't think it was taking as much money as it was giving to the community," Murarik said. "[The] programs that were there were very good programs.”
But the state said that Quehanna Boot Camp struggled to maintain meaningful enrollment in the program. During Quehanna’s final year of operation, about 60% of bed spaces were filled.
A decline in the incarcerated population statewide was a key factor to the decision to close both Quehanna and SCI Rockview, according to the DOC.
In addition, the department said savings would come from eliminating overtime and staffing costs in general.
"It's sad to lose it. It's sad to lose it in our neighborhood, in our community," Murarik said. "It's gonna be missed.”
The Department of Corrections promised employees of both Rockview state prison and Quehanna Boot Camp jobs within a 67-mile radius. That could mean a one hour drive or longer.
Corrections officer Aaron Cassel worked at SCI Rockview for more than a decade. Cassel said he never planned to leave the facility. He started working at SCI Benner, which is adjacent to Rockview, in early February.
Although he kept a job and didn’t end up with a longer commute, Cassel had to adjust to a new workplace and the uncertainty that comes with it.
“At this point, the bids for our shifts, for all the stuff, came out Monday (March 2). And I’ve been at Benner — almost a month now? And we won't know how things fall for another two weeks," Cassel said.
The management team at SCI Benner is helping officers like himself with the transition, Cassel added, but he still felt tension competing for a new schedule.
“We were forced out of our jail. We are now forced out of our shifts, and we have to fight to stay on it," he said.
The Department of Corrections said more than 90% of the affected employees were offered a position at their first choice of facilities.
One matter that stood out through the decision to close Rockview, specifically, was the special units housed in the facility.
Rockview hosted the first Neuro-Cognitive Care Unit in state prisons, which provided specialized care for inmates with dementia.
Eight of the nine inmates participating in that special care program were transferred to SCI Albion, where the unit has been relocated, according to a Department of Corrections spokesperson. One inmate was determined to require a higher level of care prior to the transfer and was sent elsewhere.
Terry Hill is the mother of David Hill, an inmate who had been at Rockview. She said David’s mental illnesses persisted through the years, when he was in and out of different prisons in Pennsylvania. Hill said Rockview stabilized David and allowed the mother and son to maintain a relationship.
“Rockview has been, I can honestly say, the best prison that David’s been in," Hill said. "The people are wonderful. Correction officers that I’ve dealt with — that David’s dealt with — are wonderful. He gets great mental health care there. I have felt the most at peace about him being on that one than any other place he’s been.”
David is now at SCI Waymart in Wayne County, Terry said. She said, so far, her son is adjusting well to the new facility in the northeast part of the state. The new location does double the length of her drive to visit him.
The decision to close Rockview and Quehanna following months of public hearings was made despite pushback from the community and local officials.
The closure, at first, was a surprise for many.
Cassel, the correctional officer who worked at Rockview, learned about the closure proposal via social media — before the official word came.
“My wife woke me up because she saw it on Facebook," Cassel said. "And she’s like, ‘So Rockview is on the list to get closed.’ And I was like, ‘Hold up, wait a minute.’"
Dave Glass is a commissioner in Clearfield County, where Quehanna Boot Camp is located. He said he believed the hearings were only a procedural step that wouldn't have stopped the decision.
“I think it was checking a box," Glass said. "I don’t think they cared. I mean, because if they would have cared, the response they got in Karthaus should have left an impression, and it didn’t.
"So I think they had to do the hearing, so they did the hearing, and then they made the decision anyway.”
Wayne Langerholc Jr., a state Senator representing Cambria, Centre and Clearfield counties, was similarly disappointed. He said the closures could hurt the local economies in the surrounding communities. Langerholc said he thinks it’s a failure of Governor Shapiro’s administration.
“He chose to turn his back on rural Pennsylvania. Quite frankly, he failed rural Pennsylvania," Langerholc said.
Commissioner Glass said Quehanna is not ideal for redevelopment because it’s in a remote location. He said Rockview is in a different position. Penn State has expressed interest in the property. And legislators, like State Senator Cris Dush and State Representative Scott Conklin, have publicly floated the possibility of using the land for agriculture or affordable housing.
Since 2004, six other state prisons have closed. Several of those facilities still remain vacant, awaiting a new purpose.