Then they should leave that city or figure out a way to work remote. Cities rise and fade with opportunity. You can’t force there to be opportunity where there is none.

People might have forgotten, but it wasnt unheard of to move to neighboring towns for, wait for it, better opportunities. Not even that far away in some cases.

Closing prisons is always a good thing if its due to lack of prisoners. That trumps any need for steady wages for a group of people near the prison.

Edit: Stringere also made a good point about company towns in another comment.