Philadelphia Looks For Savings
Shipping prisoners from Philadelphia jails to state corrections facilities is one way the city’s crowded prison system will conform to Mayor Michael Nutter’s mandatory budget cuts this year, the city prisons chief said yesterday.
Nutter has asked each city department to provide details on how to cut spending by 10, 20 and 30 percent … The prison system, which is busting at the seams with inmates in recent years, has a $230 million budget this year. “We have a significant impact on the city’s budget,” Prisons Commissioner Louis Giorla said following the first of five meetings held by city officials on the state of city spending. “Hopefully we will reduce the number of inmates. We can move inmates to state facilities.” As of midnight Sunday, there were 9,877 inmates in the Philadelphia Prisons Systems, according to Giorla. He said the department does not yet know how many inmates must transfer to the state’s facilities to alleviate the prison system’s budget problems. Other measures the department is considering taking is “working with the courts to reduce our population and considering implementing electronic resources” to cut costs, said Giorla.
A spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections said they would accommodate Philadelphia by taking some of the city’s prisoners. She said the state has traditionally bailed out county prison systems that cannot afford their prisoners.“We have traditionally helped out counties over the years,” Corrections spokeswoman Susan McNaughton said. “We will help out Philadelphia County too.”
County-State Issues, Economic Issues, Electronic Monitoring, PA Philadelphia, Pennsylvania