Legislation to add procedures as to how public safety buildings are shuttered has worked its way through the General Assembly, and House State Government Committee focused on it at a hearing Monday.

SB 748, from Sen. David Argall (R-Schuykill), and its companion HB 1606 from Rep. Jeff Wheeland (R-Lycoming), would require 12-months’ written notice to local and state officials before a prison or state police building is closed down.

Sen. David Argall (R-Schuylkill) has introduced legislation that would make it more difficult to close prisons in the commonwealth, and would require there to be a year-long public study and a hearing schedule. The PLS Reporter sat down with him to find out more about this piece of legislation.

Making his bi-weekly appearance on KDKA 1020 AM’s morning show with Larry Richert and John Shumway, Gov. Tom Wolf defended the process being used to vet the closure of two state correctional institutions.

“In the past, as I understand, what would happen is the Secretary of Corrections would say ‘We are going to open this prison or close that prison,’ and boom, that was it,” he said. “This time, I thought in the interest of transparency, say we need to close two prisons and here are five we’ve narrowed the list down to the prime candidates and we’re going to make a decision about that by January 26^th.”

Three days before the Wolf administration is set to announce the shuttering of two state correctional institutions, the Senate Republican and Democratic Policy committees and the Senate Judiciary Committee held a joint hearing to discuss and learn of the potential impacts the closures could have on the state and local communities.

Citing cost-saving measures in response to the state budget deficit, five facilities are on the list of potential closures, which are slated to occur by June 30, 2017: SCI Mercer in Mercer County, SCI Retreat in Luzerne County, SCI Frackville in Schuylkill County, SCI Waymart in Wayne County and SCI Pittsburgh in Allegheny County. 

The heads of three Senate committees stated Wednesday that they will be scheduling hearings in the coming weeks to vet the recent potential impact of the recently announced prison closures.

Late last week, the Department of Corrections announced the coming closure of two state prisons and released a list of five potential closures.