Parole Ban Worsened Inmate Crowding
Pennsylvania’s corrections chief says last year’s temporary moratorium on parole compounded the prison overcrowding that may force the state to board hundreds of inmates in other states. Reported on Philly.com.
Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard told a panel of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday that the parole rate began to plummet last year after the first of two highly publicized shootings of police officers in Philadelphia.
Gov. Ed Rendell ordered a two-month moratorium following the second shooting.
Beard says the parole rate is rebounding, but that the more than 51,000 state prison inmates are nearly 2,000 more than the approved capacity of the system.
Even with plans to add new prisons with 8,000 beds by 2013, Beard says boarding prisoners out of state may be necessary in the long term.
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