New PA Prisons Risk Overcrowding
Pennsylvania’s four new prisons, set to open in 2013, will be filled past capacity as soon as they open unless officials implement a variety of changes to alleviate the state’s prison overcrowding, Department of Corrections Sec. Jeffrey Beard told lawmakers Tuesday. Reported by The Patriot News.
The inmate count is expected to top 54,000 next month, about 10,500 over current capacity. The state completed the transfers of 2,100 inmates to prisons in Michigan and Virginia last month and construction is set to begin this summer on the new prisons.
Beard offered lawmakers five changes that would not cost money to implement, including sending those with a technical parole violation, a small offense such as missing an appointment, to community-based programs and not back to prison; diverting offenders with short sentences into community corrections facilities; and loosening parole restrictions to allow non-violent offenders to be paroled once they’ve served their minimum sentence.
The changes could save the state at least $110 million after three years, Beard said.
Gov. Ed Rendell said Tuesday the state has to evaluate its entire system and significantly alter sentencing rules to reserve state prisons for only the most dangerous offenders.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Thomas Caltagirone, D-Berks, said he plans to introduce legislation soon that mirrors two Senate bills, SB 1161 and SB 1299, that would put into law several of the reforms Beard is seeking.
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