What will happen to Rockview state prison if it closes? Here’s what happened to others in Pa.
As the proposed closure of Rockview state prison looms, history provides some clues about what could happen with the aging facility if the recommendation from Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration is finalized.
Pennsylvania closed a handful of state prisons in roughly the past half-century and not every facility has faced the same fate. One became a popular museum, while others have been sold or are set for costly demolitions.
A state Department of Corrections spokeswoman told the Centre Daily Times last month it was “too early to determine” what could happen with Rockview, one of several questions the state is working to answer in the coming months.
Three state prisons — Cresson in Cambria County, Greensburg in Westmoreland County and Waynesburg in Greene County — have been sold at auction for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Cresson was sold for $600,000 in 2017, Greensburg was sold for $950,000 in 2015, and Waynesburg was sold for $990,000 in 2005, the state Department of General Services told the CDT.
The sales, however, have not been a panacea.
State Rep. Eric Nelson, a Republican who serves part of Westmoreland County, urged state agencies during a budget hearing earlier this month to have an all-encompassing plan for any prison that closes.
The closure of Greensburg state prison in 2013 touched off a yearslong “blight issue,” Nelson said.
“It’s still a problem in Westmoreland County,” Nelson told top DOC officials. “It’s not a problem on your desk. It’s a problem on our local officials’ desk.”
Chris Oppman, the DOC’s deputy secretary for administration, pointed to the market and said there are few ideas for what to do with a shuttered prison.
Pittsburgh state prison, for example, closed in 2017 and there was hope the facility’s location — along the Ohio River and only 3 1/2 miles from downtown Pittsburgh — would make it an attractive property.
Instead, the massive complex still sits there while a variety of movies have been filmed there, Oppman said. It’s now being prepared for a demolition that Oppman said could cost upward of $50 million.
The Department of General Services, which acts as the state’s real estate arm, said the property is slated to then be sold in a competitive bid.
In the interim, Republican state Rep. Marla Brown said Pittsburgh and the shuttered Retreat state prison in Luzerne County cost a combined $2.25 million per year to maintain. Left unanswered was a question about how long the DOC expects the two facilities to remain in its budget.
Retreat closed in 2020 and the Department of General Services said the agency is working to collect necessary surveys and appraisals to obtain legislative authorization for a sale in the future. Oppman said some counties have expressed interest in operating the prison as a jail.
Graterford state prison in Montgomery County, meanwhile, sits unoccupied after it closed in 2018 and saw all of its inmates and staff relocate to a new state prison on the same property.
Perhaps the greatest success story can be found at the former Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. The prison was abandoned for nearly two decades until it was redeveloped into a historic site offering tours since 1994.
A 2023 report said the former prison supported nearly 400 jobs, generated $29 million in economic impact in Pennsylvania and drew in 266,000 annual visitors.
So what about Rockview?
Shapiro’s administration has pitched its proposal as a way to save the state tens of millions of dollars in the face of shrinking state prison populations, high vacancy and turnover rates among corrections officers, and massive overtime payments. Quehanna Boot Camp in neighboring Clearfield County was also recommended for closure.
Complicating Rockview’s potential future is the condition of the prison.
It’s the second-oldest in the DOC system and the agency has said it would require $74 million in upgrades over the next five years if it were to remain open — the highest cost of any state prison.
Open for more than a century, the Pennsylvania Prison Society said Rockview is in “serious disrepair.” The nonprofit’s prison monitoring director told the CDT many cells in two particular blocks have crumbling walls, rust and peeling paint while pipes, toilets and sinks leak.
That monitor, Noah A. Barth, said he even saw pigeons flying in the prison during a tour led by Superintendent Bobbi Salamon. Left in their wake were areas with “large quantities of pigeon droppings,” Barth said.
“Those two units are not modern and conditions in them are problematic,” Barth said. “... The original housing blocks of Rockview are insufficient for operations, security and living conditions.”
Speaking to Centre County’s commissioners last month, longtime Prison Society volunteer Janet Irons mentioned mold and insect infestations before telling them she could “go on and on.”
She then asked they not rush to judge the proposed closure of a prison with conditions she described as “atrocious and appalling.”
“If we want to send incarcerated people the message that they are going to be rehabilitated, nobody wants to send them to a prison that is over 100 years old and falling apart,” Irons said.
This story was originally published March 14, 2025 at 12:18 PM.