State plans to close Waynesburg inmate reentry center
The Progress Community Corrections Center (CCC) in Waynesburg, a facility designed to assist inmates with their reentry into society, is among four state facilities being slated for closure.
A state Department of Corrections steering committee report recommended shuttering the facility along with State Correctional Institution (SCI) Rockview, the Quehanna Boot Camp and the Wernersville CCC.
Prison closures are subject to the state’s Act 133, which triggers a three-month period of review and public feedback before a final decision. The act does not apply to the CCCs, which the state expects to close in about three months, according to the release.
“It’s very disappointing,” said John Eckenrode, president of the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association. “I was having conversations the other day and talked to the employees. Everybody’s in the dark.”
Eckenrode had sent a list of questions to the DOC after the announcement, which he said have yet to be answered.
Ending operations at the four sites is projected to save Pennsylvania $10 million in the upcoming fiscal year, with eventual savings reaching $100 million, the DOC said in a Monday release announcing the decision.
Progress is the most expensive community corrections center in the state to operate per day, costing $171.39 per reentrant, according to data provided by the DOC. Total costs are about $3.6 million per year.
The facility offers a 70- to 90-day program as an alternative to incarceration for parole violators, according to Progress’s handbook for reentrants. As of Jan. 27, there were 61 beds accounted for in the 120-bed facility, with 57 inmates and four transfers. The 32-position staff has four vacancies, the DOC said. Eckenrode said PSCOA members account for about 20 of the staff.
“Based on the high cost of operation and low census, closing this facility could result in considerable cost savings as well as increased efficiencies across the Bureau of Community Corrections,” the DOC statement said. “Specifically, complete closure of Progress CCC would save approximately $3.6 million and the staff would be absorbed into other positions/sites fairly seamlessly.”
Eckenrode was skeptical of how easy the transition would be for workers at Progress, noting the closest CCC is in Pittsburgh.
“There’s only so many community corrections centers … I have a pretty good indication that they’re not going to be able to take everybody that wants to go there,” he said.
As the sole lockdown re-entry center in the state, Progress being targeted “boggles my mind,” Eckenrode said.
“It costs more money to house them in prison than it does in these centers,” he said. “It served a purpose, and we’re saying it doesn’t serve a purpose anymore? We’re not getting rid of inmates, we’re just moving them around.”
In its report, the steering committee pointed to the growing difficulty of filling corrections officer positions and the state’s declining inmate population.
About 5.2% of corrections officer positions were vacant at the end of 2024, according to the report. To fill the gap, officers had accrued more than $70.5 million in overtime costs over the past two fiscal years.
About 82.2% of the state’s approximately 46,500 beds at correctional facilities were filled at the end of the year, the steering committee report said.
State Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll Township, called the recommendations — particularly regarding the Progress CCC — “very concerning.”
“Although the goal of DOC is to return citizens to their private life after rehabilitation, it has become increasingly difficult for corrections officers and facilities to provide programs, education and counseling to an overwhelmingly large population of inmates,” she said in a statement Friday. “Closing prisons is a good result, only when there is significant reduction in inmate population. The reverse is true when closing one or two facilities results in more than 100% capacity for other facilities. Overcrowding results in frustration, anxiety, and a dangerous environment for inmates as well as corrections officers and staff.”
Bartolotta said she was encouraged to see the DOC’s commitment to finding suitable jobs for the displaced workers, and that she intends to hold the state to its commitment.
“The men and women that subject themselves to the stress of this line of work are true public servants and deserve our full support,” she said in the statement. “I will continue to be in communication with DOC during the three-month public comment period.”
State Rep. Bud Cook, R-West Pike Run, said in a statement he is grateful to see the staff affected by the closure have been offered other options.
“I believe this can be an opportunity for a solution for all of Greene County’s residents,” he said. “We as elected officials are mandated to work together to provide a productive service through the facility. I am open to using the facility for additional purposes and look forward to having the necessary, ongoing conversations to ensure we find a useful purpose for the facility.”