PHILADELPHIA, PA, February 8, 2025— On a cold afternoon in downtown Philadelphia, hundreds of people rallied outside of Governor Shapiro’s office, calling on him to close the notoriously toxic state prison – SCI Fayette. For over a decade, the Human Rights Coalition has been pushing to close the prison, which was built next to a dump site containing 40 million tons of coal ash.
“SCI Fayette is a death trap,” says BP Lyles, leader of HRC’s Toxic Prisons Campaign. “Within the prison system, everyone knows that you get sent to Fayette to die. On every cell block, people are dealing with skin rashes, nose bleeds, chronic asthma, and high rates of cancer. Even the guards know it! The guards get bottled water, and the inmates have to drink the disgusting water that comes out of the taps in our cells.”
This protest comes on the heels of an announcement that Governor Shapiro made on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, that he intends to close two state prisons and two community corrections centers and save the Commonwealth over $100 million. The move to close the state prisons was driven by a recent drop in the total state prison population, leaving the majority of state prisons operating below 90% capacity and over 6,000 vacant beds in the PADOC.
“The amount of money spent on incarcerating people in Pennsylvania is astounding – well over $1 billion annually,” says Shakaboona Marshall, Executive Director of the Human Rights Coalition. “We applaud the Governor on his decision to close two prisons and reinvest that money in our underfunded schools and public transit. We just want the community to be involved in the process and for those of us who know the prison system well to have our voices heard about which facilities should close. For us, the top priority is to close SCI Fayette.”
SCI Fayette has been the subject of controversy since it was first built in 2003. In 2014, the Human Rights Coalition helped author a report alongside the Abolitionist Law Center and the Center for Coalfield Justice, which exposed the serious health problems that have arisen among prisoners exposed to high levels of toxic coal ash. Since then, SCI Fayette has become synonymous with the issue of environmental racism and ‘toxic prisons’ – correctional facilities that deal with serious water and air contamination for nearby toxic sites.
“Governor Shapiro, do the right thing and shut down SCI Fayette before it kills more people,” says Jackson Kusiak, an organizer with the Human Rights Coalition. “Too many people are suffering with cancer and dying behind the walls.”
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