With their jobs on the line, state correctional officers from across Northeastern Pennsylvania came to the Capitol on Monday to support efforts to keep open three state prisons in the region.

They lined the walls of a Senate hearing room and stood on the marble steps of the Capitol Rotunda as lawmakers and local officials called upon the Wolf administration to, at the very least, delay an announcement set for Thursday on which two of five targeted prisons will be closed because of a chronic state budget debt. Administration officials said they are sticking with the Thursday schedule.Three of the five prisons - SCI-Retreat in Newport Township, SCI-Waymart in Wayne County and SCI-Frackville in Schuylkill County - are in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The other two are SCI-Pittsburgh and SCI-Mercer in western Pennsylvania.Some 85 officers from SCI-Retreat and SCI-Waymart were at the Capitol, said Mark Truszkowski, the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association business agent for those two prisons.These officers attended the hearing so they could hear firsthand the information about why their prisons have been targeted, said Truszkowski.Two Retreat officers declined to comment to a reporter's question about their participation, citing Department of Corrections policy.Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said closing two prisons is better than the alternative option of a 10 percent across-the-board department cut. He said there would be no staff layoffs from a closing because of the department's relocation policies.A Luzerne County prosecutor spoke about the impact of a closing on corrections officers."You are adding increased stress to this job," said District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis. "You are adding more travel time so they won't spend time with their families."