Photo and Story by Rick Hiduk
The Wyoming County Commissioners, flanked by Solicitor Paul Litwin (above, left) and Chief Deputy Clerk Georgette Smith (right) held their first meeting of the new year on Tuesday morning at the courthouse in Tunkhannock.
The Wyoming County Commissioners made it clear on Jan. 10 that they are against the closing of any state correctional facilities in the region as proposed by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf last week.
Three of five prisons that are being looked at for possible closure employ people from Wyoming County. The commissioners were not comforted by the suggestion that all employees of any facilities to be closed in July would be transferred to other jails.
“We are…worried about the employees who…may lose their jobs or be transferred from their homes, some of whom are residents of Wyoming County,” read part of a letter to the Governor, Sen. John Yudichak, Sen. Lisa Baker, and Rep. Karen Boback drafted by Commissioner Ron Williams. “The closing of these facilities will have a ripple effect on the economy, employment and prison overcrowding throughout the state.”
Commissioner Judy Mead said that she knew of one couple that had just bought a house in Wyoming County and settled down after securing an administrative position at a state facility in Luzerne County.
A commission authorized by the governor contends that prison population is actually down across the Commonwealth from a high of 52,000 in 2012 to just over 49,000. Some counties, however, have seen dramatic increases in the number of inmates due to the opiod crisis.
Wyoming County, in fact, processed a record 574 inmates in 2016, according to Wyoming County Prison Warden Ken Repsher.
Williams’ letter further states, “We are opposed to holding any state-sentenced prisoners in our county institutions, other than those awaiting transport to a state facility.”
Commissioner Tom Henry related that current rules allow five days for a state-sentenced prisoner to be moved from the county to a state facility but they are usually moved out more quickly.
Just prior to the start of a meeting of the Wyoming County Prison Board that was held before the regularly scheduled commissioners meeting, Deputy Warden Gordon Traveny said that the prison in Tunkhannock currently not compliant with Commonwealth regulations to take in state prisoners. The county would have to pay for an annual audit to be able to do so.
Nonetheless, Williams noted, the fact that the prison closings were announced without any public hearings leaves him to distrust how the governor might handle any facets of the situation in the future.
“We ask for public hearings to be held before any closings,” his letter concludes.
The facilities specified in the letter, which was signed by all three commissioners, include SCI Retreat in Luzerne County, SCI Waymart in Wayne County, and SCI Frackville in Schuylkill County. Combined, they house more than 3,650 inmates and employ 1,450 people. Other facilities on the chopping block are SCI Pittsburgh, which holds 1,900 inmates and SCI Mercer, which holds 1,400 prisoners.
The Wolf administration claims the prison closures are needed to balance the state budget and cites room for an additional 1,000 prisoners at an expanded facility in Camp Hill. Williams said that he has also heard of a plan to move additional inmates to a facility near Philadelphia, leading to the charge that more jobs will be created there at the expense of northeast Pennsylvania.
(To read more about the Jan. 10 meeting of the Wyoming County Commissioners, click http://www.endlessmtnlifestyles.com/?p=6564 )