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Pennsylvania DOC proposes closing facilities, opens three‑month Act 133 feedback period
Summary
The Department of Corrections told the Appropriations Committee it has proposed several facility closures — including SCI Rock View and a boot camp — because of excess bed capacity and capital costs; the proposals are in a 90‑day Act 133 stakeholder feedback period and no final decisions have been made.
The Department of Corrections on Feb. 4 proposed closing multiple facilities — including SCI Rock View and a Chesapeake‑area boot camp listed in testimony as “Kehana boot camp” — and said it would accept public and local‑official feedback during a three‑month Act 133 process before making any final decisions.
The proposal is meant to respond to a sustained drop in the prison population and to reduce ongoing operating and capital costs, Secretary Laurel Harry told the House Appropriations Committee. “These are proposed closures. We have not made a final decision yet because we are in the 3 month feedback period,” Harry said.
Why it matters: the department told lawmakers it has excess capacity across the system and must weigh the high cost of maintaining older facilities against mission needs. Committee members pressed department officials on how closure decisions were made, who served on the internal steering committee and what local impacts would look like for staff, county services and utilities.
Officials described how the steering committee compiled data on expenditures, infrastructure needs, staffing and specialized housing to identify sites that could be closed with “the least impact on staff, inmates, programs, and [the DOC’s] mission of rehabilitation and public safety,” Deputy Secretary Christopher Ottman told the panel. Ottman said the steering committee includes bureau chiefs from administration, population management, facilities, planning and security and that the committee met multiple times beginning in January before the announcement.
Lawmakers pressed for more local engagement and for clarity about costs. Secretary Harry said the department calculates capital projects over a multi‑year plan and that Rock View carries an estimated $74,000,000 in needed capital work over a 10‑year horizon, a major factor in the review. The department also warned that closed properties sometimes must be held and maintained for years as the Department of General Services pursues reuse or sale, which can leave continuing costs on the state budget.
Local officials and some committee members said they were concerned by the timing and the potential local economic effects of closures. Representative Mustela asked whether local officials had been consulted; Harry said local officials receive stakeholder letters under Act 133 and that the current 90‑day period is explicitly intended to collect that feedback. “They are a stakeholder. They received a stakeholder letter. Local officials, state other commonwealth agencies… we reach out to them and invite that feedback,” Harry said.
Operational impacts: the DOC said it expects to remain below roughly 90% capacity in male facilities and below 80% capacity in female facilities even if the proposed closures proceed. Harry and Ottman said the department believes it has available bed space to absorb populations now assigned to the proposed sites, because some vacant beds are specialized (restrictive housing, mental‑health/residential treatment, drug‑treatment beds) and not interchangeable with general‑population beds.
On reuse and utilities: the department warned that parts of a closed site sometimes must be retained because they supply utilities to neighboring facilities. Harry noted that some Rock View acreage contains reservoirs and water infrastructure that also serve nearby SCI Benner, and that any disposition would involve DGS and, ultimately, legislative action.
Next steps: the Act 133 process will accept written feedback and public comment; the steering committee will review responses and make recommendations to the DOC executive team and the Governor’s office before any final decisions are announced. Until that process concludes, the department emphasized that the closures are proposals only and no final staffing or relocation orders have been issued.
Ending: Committee members asked for follow‑up documents, including the department’s 10‑year capital plan and facility‑level breakdowns of capital needs and staffing. The DOC said it will compile a final report after the feedback period that will include more facility‑level detail.
