Inmate's Mother Devastated By Possibility Of State Prison Closures
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- State officials broke the news earlier this week about wanting to close two local prisons, the Greensburg State Prison in Westmoreland County and Cresson State Prison in Cambria County.
The closures would mean that most inmates would be relocated miles away to other facilities.
But now, a mother of one of those inmates is speaking out. She says the move may mean she'll never see her son again.
Sarah Young, 70, sits at home with her dog waiting for her son, Jimmy, to call her from the state prison in Greensburg. She fears she's seen him for the last time.
"Oh my God, I'm not going to be able to see my son again," she said.
Her son is serving a life sentence in connection with a 1993 fire that killed his wife, Gina, and their two children.
Young and his mother have long maintained his innocence, as he did in a 1995 interview with KDKA's Paul Martino.
Martino: "Can you tell us why you didn't help your family out of the burning house?"
Young: "I did everything I could to get my family out of that house, everything I could to get them out. I love my family, Mr. Martino. And I did everything I could to get them out."
Innocent or not, Young may soon be transferred many miles away from his ailing mother as the state plans to shut down the State Correctional Institution in Greensburg.
His mother now clings to the letters from her son.
"I love you so much and I am sure I'll be seeing you when you feel better," she reads from one of her son's notes.
But with declining health, it's unlikely that Young's mother could travel many miles away to another county to see her son when he's transferred. They are visits that she says are keeping her alive.
"I want to see him, [even] if I only see him for five minutes," Young said.
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