WAYNESBURG New state prison provides fewer jobs than expected

Two prisons will close, so those employees will take many of the positions.
WAYNESBURG, Pa. (AP) -- A new state prison was expected to bring hundreds of needed jobs to a rural Fayette County community, but instead, many will likely go to workers being displaced by the closure of two other western Pennsylvania prisons.
The $125 million State Correctional Institution is creating nearly 700 jobs near the Fayette-Greene County border. Inmates will gradually move in after it opens next month.
The 2,200-bed prison is about 15 miles from the Waynesburg prison, which is scheduled to close by November because of the state's budget woes. That's close enough that many of its roughly 200 employees are expected to apply for jobs at Fayette.
Also scheduled to close by April is the state prison in Pittsburgh, which employs 750 people.
Officials in Fayette weren't expecting the competition when they lobbied for the prison.
"Nobody saw the closing of Waynesburg coming, but we knew from the beginning that [Pittsburgh] was closing," said Ron DeSalvo, a supervisor in Luzerne Township. He added, however, that Pittsburgh is closing much sooner than expected.
"But what I tell people is, we have [the prison.] It's here. We may not have that many jobs to start with, but we're going to have some," DeSalvo said. He could not say how many local jobs will be created.
New job market
The state is helping Waynesburg and Pittsburgh employees get jobs at Fayette and another prison expected to open next year in Forest County, said Barbara Wilhelm, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections.
"It's too early to really speculate who's really going to get what," she said.
Forest County Commissioner Basil Huffman said job-seekers from the two closing prisons aren't expected to have a large impact.
The 2,032-bed, $126 million prison in Marienville is expected to create about 700 jobs, about two-thirds of which he expects to be filled with people from the area.
"We were told upfront that probably one-third of the employees would have to transfer in from other facilities" because of training and security issues, Huffman said.
Sen. Barry Stout, D-Washington, said he understands the disappointment Fayette officials feel at learning there won't be as many opportunities for local residents.
" ... But at the same time, I have to try to protect the employees who have served the Department of Corrections for many years" at Waynesburg, Stout said.
Future jobs
With retirements and attrition, more jobs for locals will eventually open, DeSalvo said, and people working at the Pittsburgh prison will probably move to the area, helping the tax base.
"There's a lot of plusses to this prison," he said.
State officials have said they selected Waynesburg for closure because holding an inmate there for one year costs $33,000, compared with an average annual cost of $29,000 to hold an inmate elsewhere. Pittsburgh, an older prison, is also more costly to run, officials said.
Both Pittsburgh and Waynesburg will continue with skeleton crews in case they need to be reopened to meet demand, Wilhelm said.