SCI-Fayette must open on schedule
Fayette County’s legislative delegation needs to exert as much pressure as it can muster on incoming Gov. Ed Rendell to open the new state prison as soon as it is completed. The Department of Corrections said that it planned to save money by postponing the opening until 2004. It then shaved a few months off the timetable by saying the SCI-Fayette might open in the fall. But that is still more than a year after the initial target and at least six months later than the revised date.
Work on the $135 million maximum-security prison is nearly finished, as is construction on a minimum-security facility in Forest County. The corrections department said that budget pressures, a mandate by the state to trim $15 million from its budget, forced a choice between laying off workers or delaying the prison openings.
Neither choice is acceptable. The General Assembly, with the support of the past three governors, keeps passing legislation that mandates prison lengths. That coupled with increases in crime has led to an explosion in the prison population. Pennsylvania currently houses 40,062 inmates. That is 3,200 more than the last year and nearly 6,000 more inmates than the system’s capacity. To delay opening two prisons that would provide 4,000 more beds is dangerous. Just as dangerous as laying off guards.
Surely there is a better solution, and it is up to Fayette’s leaders to convince the new governor that one can be found. In addition to the foolishness of spending $135 million to build a prison that would remain dormant, Fayette was counting on its opening to spur economic growth.
The prison is expected to hire 600 workers, with wages that can support families. The county and Luzerne Township have invested in upgrading necessary sewerage and water systems and expect a pay-off in neighborhoods and businesses that will grow in the area.
When Fayette learned in 1999 that a prison would be built here to replace the aging SCI-Pittsburgh, it was predicted that it would open in 2002. That deadline was missed and replaced with an early 2003 startup.
Political pressure brought the prison to Fayette County. A resurgence of that pressure can bring about its timely opening.