HARRISBURG, Pa. - SCI Mercer is getting a few upgrades after being spared from the state budget chopping block.

State Senator Michele Brooks announced the facility will add a Veterans Service Unit and increase the number of infirmary beds.

The Veterans Service Unit will work with incarcerated veterans who are approximately nine to 18 months from release to help them re-enter society and reduce the likelihood of recidivism.

Sen. Brooks is also working to bring a program to SCI Mercer that would allow inmates to train therapeutic dogs for service members suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

This proposed program would operate independently of the existing Correction Adoptive Rescue/Endeavor Canine Program, which provides training and socialization to enhance the adoptability of dogs in need of a permanent home.

These additions come just a month after SCI Mercer was on a list of four prisons for possible shutdowns due to a dire budget forecast.

SCI Mercer was spared the chopping block; only SCI in Pittsburgh had been notified that it would be shutting down.

The State Correctional Institution in Mercer County employs 413 people and houses 1,404 inmates.

Reasons for not closing Mercer include the lowest inmate costs per year — the cost to house an inmate here is about $39,000 a year — as well as the expenditure of nearly $20 million on upgrades at the prison, which was built in 1978.

If SCI Mercer had closed, Mercer County Commissioner Scott Boyd said 400 jobs would have been lost or relocated, contributing to a negative economic impact of as much as $52 million.

Other facilities that had been under consideration include SCI Retreat in Luzerne County, SCI Frackville in Schuylkll County, SCI Waymart in Wayne County.