The state Senate Judiciary Committee will meet next week for a hearing on plans to shutter two state prisons and move inmates to a new facility set to open this year in Centre County.
 
A new, $200 million state prison in Benner Township will have 2,000 inmates and more than 500 staff on board by the end of June, the state Department of Corrections said this week.
 
Some inmates were set to arrive at the new facility as early as this week, according to a report published by the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat. The newspaper reported inmates in the mental health wing at a facility in Cresson, Cambria County, one of the two prisons set to close, will be the first to move.
 
Meanwhile, state Sen. John Wozniak, whose district includes Cambria County and a slice of eastern Centre County, plans to make his constituents’ concerns heard at the hearing in Harrisburg. More than 500 people are employed at the State Correctional Institution in Cresson, which is located in Wozniak’s district.