This comes after Governor Kate Brown’s proposal to shut it down for budgetary reasons.
Mike Castaldo is a sergeant at Shutter Creek Correctional Institution and the president of his local union.
He says his views don’t reflect Shutter Creek Correctional Institution or the Oregon Department of Corrections, only his own.
He echoes what other people in Coos County have told us, if the prison shuts down, it will have a largely negative impact on the local economy.
Castaldo says the nearest correctional institution the local employees and their families could re-locate to is 4 hours away in Salem.
“We’ll have to re-locate, pick up… everything that we have here in our communities that we love will go with us, it’s not just the core impact of just employees, it impacts everything out here,” said Castaldo.
Castaldo says the prison provides job training to inmates and offers them the option to complete their education.
He says the institution brought $6 million in revenue last year.
Castaldo is hoping to garner more support for this cause by hosting a rally next month.
More information can be found on the Save Shutter Creek Facebook page.
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