HARRISBURG – State Sen. John N. Wozniak will sit with the Senate Judiciary Committee so he can participate in a hearing next week to examine the state Department of Corrections’ plan to close two prisons, according to Senate officials.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to participate in the hearing,” he said. “The department’s plan has raised a lot of questions in my district and I’m looking forward to posing them to the decision-makers.”
One of the questions, Wozniak said, is why there was no public input into the decision to close prisons in Cresson and Greensburg.
“Obviously, the secretive way it was handled and the cagey way it was announced make everyone suspicious of how the plan would stand up to public scrutiny,” he said. “I found out from a reporter. That’s not a good sign.”
Wozniak, the Democratic Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee who also serves on the Appropriations, Finance, and Intergovernmental Operations committees, is not a formal member of the Judiciary Committee.
The potential impact on his district, where more than 500 people are employed at SCI-Cresson, prompted Judiciary Committee Chairman Stewart Greenleaf (R-Montgomery/Bucks) to grant him committee-member privileges for the hearing, which will take place next Tuesday in Harrisburg.
The hearing will be held in Hearing Room 1 of the North Office Building, adjacent to the main Capitol.