CRESSON, CAMBRIA COUNTY - Union corrections officers met Wednesday night to talk about the closing of SCI Cresson and to find out what's going to happen to them.
Last week prison officials announced they were closing two State Correctional Institutes. The state plans to shut down SCI Cresson in Cambria County and Greensburg near Pittsburgh. The state told the employees they could be placed elsewhere in the state system. And they already started transferring the inmates to other prisons.
Joe Fox is the President for the Local Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association at Cresson. He's also a guard there himself. Monday he got a letter asking him where he would be willing to work when the state closes Cresson and he has a week to decide and send it back.
Fox and many in the crowd don't think there's any reason to close Cresson. They say the building is not in disrepair and they don't have the highest cost-to-inmate ratio.
The state president for PSCOA also addressed the crowd Wednesday night. He says it would take the Governor or the Secretary for Corrections to step in and stop SCI Cresson from closing. If that can't happen he's trying to make sure the guards aren't forced to move or travel any farther than they have to.
Fox wants to tell the public these men and women aren't government spending to be cut, their people living in the community.
Last week prison officials announced they were closing two State Correctional Institutes. The state plans to shut down SCI Cresson in Cambria County and Greensburg near Pittsburgh. The state told the employees they could be placed elsewhere in the state system. And they already started transferring the inmates to other prisons.
Joe Fox is the President for the Local Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association at Cresson. He's also a guard there himself. Monday he got a letter asking him where he would be willing to work when the state closes Cresson and he has a week to decide and send it back.
Fox and many in the crowd don't think there's any reason to close Cresson. They say the building is not in disrepair and they don't have the highest cost-to-inmate ratio.
The state president for PSCOA also addressed the crowd Wednesday night. He says it would take the Governor or the Secretary for Corrections to step in and stop SCI Cresson from closing. If that can't happen he's trying to make sure the guards aren't forced to move or travel any farther than they have to.
Fox wants to tell the public these men and women aren't government spending to be cut, their people living in the community.
