Prisoners returning to Pa. facilities
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HARRISBURG -- Bringing 2,000 state inmates back from prisons in Michigan and Virginia will save the commonwealth more than $20 million, but lawmakers are seeking additional savings to combat rising costs in the Department of Corrections.
Pennsylvania transferred 1,000 prisoners to each of the two states beginning in February 2010 due to a lack of space. The state's prison population has since declined, and the Michigan prisoners will be brought back by the end of June, said Acting Corrections Secretary John Wetzel.
The state pays $62 daily for each prisoner housed out of state.
Mr. Wetzel said there's no date yet for returning the prisoners who are in Virginia, but that "the goal is to bring everybody back."
Senators told state corrections officials during a hearing Tuesday more savings will be necessary from a department that would see a $186.5 million increase under the governor's budget.
Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton, suggested cutting back on inmates' allocation of 10 stamped envelopes a month. Others, like Senate Appropriations Chairman Jake Corman, R-Centre, sought the department's ideas on how to prevent their costs from "continuing to eat away at the state budget."
Mr. Wetzel said the culprit is the burgeoning prison population of 51,000 inmates. Crafting a definition for who is a "non-violent offender" can help determine which inmates could be moved to cheaper, alternative facilities, he said. "Our budget is specifically tied to our population," he said. "We absolutely are looking to work with the General Assembly to change how we do business."
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, who sponsored a measure last session to provide alternatives to "lower-risk" offenders, said the budget deficit gives an urgency to reform: "We can't sustain the way we are now."
First Published March 30, 2011 12:00 am
