MERCER COUNTY Pickets protest at prison

A state spokesman said there are no plans to bring private nursing services into current prisons.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
MERCER, Pa. -- Medical personnel at the state prison in Findley Township picketed outside the minimum-security facility Wednesday, protesting what they say is a state plan to privatize prison health care.
The picketing at the State Regional Correctional Facility at Mercer was for public informational purposes only, said a spokesman for the Service Employees International Union, which represents nurses, dentists and dental hygienists at state prisons in Pennsylvania.
The union represents 16 health-care employees at the Mercer prison.
Similar pickets were set up at seven other state prisons across the state.
What's behind this: The workers fear the state could eliminate their jobs and hire private contractors to perform medical services in the prisons.
The change could come as early as December, bringing in people who don't have the security training that Department of Corrections (DOC) employees have already been given, the union said.
The pickets are jumping the gun, said Michael Lukens, DOC spokesman.
The state has sent out requests for proposals (RFP) from private companies for medical services for its prisons and those requests do include an option for nursing services.
However, the same option has been in every state RFP for medical services since 1995 but has never been implemented system-wide and there are no plans to implement it now, Lukens said.
It's just a matter of the state's getting a look at all possible options, he said.
Lukens said the option was exercised when the state opened a minimum-security prison in Chester in 1999 and a maximum-security prison for young adult offenders in Indiana County earlier this year but there are no plans to do it with current prisons.