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MAY 14, 2012 | Feature by COMMONWEALTH FOUNDATION
Real Corrections Reform, Right Now
A 21st Century Vision for Pennsylvania Corrections
Albert Einstein is said to have remarked that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. We the undersigned submit that unfortunately, that same definition could be applied to Pennsylvania's current criminal justice policies. What we have been doing is locking more and more people up for lon
FEBRUARY 14, 2012 | Policy Points by COMMONWEALTH FOUNDATION
Pennsylvania Corrections Spending
The FY 2011-12 total operating budget of $63.4 billion, which included $27.1 billion in General Fund spending, represented the first year-to-year reduction in state spending in at least 40 years. However, as the economy continues to struggle out of a recession and with increasing costs in public welfare, corrections, pensions, and debt, the FY 2
FEBRUARY 6, 2012 | Policy Points by COMMONWEALTH FOUNDATION
Pennsylvania State Budget Toolkit
2012 Budget Resources
The FY 2011-12 total operating budget of $63.4 billion, which included $27.1 billion in General Fund spending, represented the first year-to-year reduction in state spending in at least 40 years. However, as the economy continues to struggle out of a recession and with increasing costs in public welfare, corrections, pensions, and debt, the FY 2
Recent Blog Posts
MAY 8, 2012
Correcting Corrections Correctly
A look at Senate Bill 100
Over the last 30 years, Pennsylvania's incarceration rate has increased by 500 percent and corrections spending has skyrocketed 1,700 percent. The unprecedented prison population growth at unsustainable costs was caused by a breakdown in our criminal justice system, not an increase in crime or statewide population growth.
Evidence-based policy reforms should embrace the following three principles:
- Keep Low-Risk Cases Out of Prisons. Research indicates that while imprisonment keeps offenders from committing crimes while in prison, it does not deter crimes after release, and may even make low-risk offenders more likely to commit future crimes.
- Reduce Recidivism. Inmates must be rehabilitated by addressing behavioral and substance abuse issues. Nearly 45 percent of Pennsylvania offenders return to prison after three years. A significant factor is technical parole or probation violations such as breaking curfew, not new crimes.
- Fund Results, Not Just Punishments. Criminal justice reforms should protect citizens, lower crime rates, and control spending.
Senate Bill 100
This legislation primarily addresses how the state correctional system handles nonviolent offenders with drug and alcohol addictions.
- Risk Assessments Guidelines. An up-front risk assessments tool is added into the state's sentencing guidelines.
- This will sort out high risk cases that should be in state prison from lower risk cases that may be better managed in less expensive alternative programs.
- Alternative Program Eligibility. As an alternative to traditional prison, offenders may be sentenced to one of the state's alternative sentencing programs, designed for nonviolent criminals, often dealing with substance abuse. SB 100 makes the following changes:
- Allows eligible offender to be sentenced to a state-level alternative program even if a mandatory minimum sentence applies. Currently, minimum sentences disqualify many otherwise eligible offenders.
- The age criteria for an inmate to be sentenced to Quehanna Motivational Boot Camp increased from age 35 to 40. Modeled after military boot camp, it delivers a rigorous, regimented schedule. Successful program completion earns inmates a reduced sentence.
- Offenders with low-quantity drug trafficking offenses may be sentenced to County Intermediate Punishment. Offenders serve their sentence and receive appropriate treatment at the county level instead of state prison.
- County "HOPE" Courts. Counties can establish an innovative probation program that provides swift, predictable sanctions on probation violators. Modeled after Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) program to incentivize probationers to stay drug and alcohol free.
- In a HOPE program, drug offenders must call every morning to see if they must report to court for a drug test. Failure can result in immediate jail time. As a result, positive drug tests have dropped more than 70 percent and new arrests cut in half, saving an estimated $4,000 to $8,000 per offender.
- Counts Jail Time towards Prerelease Center Eligibility. One of the time-eligibility requirements an inmate must satisfy before entering a prerelease center is serving at least nine months of their sentence in prison. Under this law, time served in county jails and would count towards this minimum. Violent and sex offenders are ineligible.
- Prerelease programs provide low-risk offenders opportunities for reintegration into communities through work, education and vocational training release as well as community centers for specialized additional treatment and guidance and counseling.
- State corrections facilities receive a significant number of offenders with short sentences that would be better served in community centers than state prisons.
Recommendation for Improvement
- SB 100 makes small expansions in eligibility criteria for the state's successful alternative sentencing programs. This should be extensively expanded, particularly allowing more inmates convicted of substance abuse.
- At a minimum, the list of offenses ineligible for alternative sentencing should not be expanded.
- A sentencing judge should be able to order an offender to participate in an alternative sentencing program without approval by the prosecutor.
- There should be incentives for counties to establish a "HOPE" court style program or require counties to participate.
posted by KATRINA CURRIE | 09:50 AM | 0 comment
MAY 4, 2012
HOPE for PA Corrections Reform
Launched in 2004, Hawaii's Opportunity Probation with Enforcement (HOPE) is an innovative supervision strategy that provides swift, predictable sanctions on substance-abusing probationers.
Research shows the program has reduced probationers' positive drug tests more than 70 percent and traditional probationers are three times more likely to have probation revoked than HOPE participants, saving taxpayers saving an estimated $4,000 to $8,000 per offender.
Senate Bill 100, which would treat nonviolent offenders with drug and alcohol problems, includes language for counties to establish "HOPE" Courts. This legislation could be improved by providing incentives for counties to establish a "HOPE" program or requiring counties to participate.
Pennsylvania's corrections spending is part of the four-alarm fire that threatens Pennsylvania's fiscal house. Learn more about principled corrections reforms here.
posted by KATRINA CURRIE | 05:30 PM | 0 comment
APRIL 24, 2012
Unprecedented Prison Population Growth
This is the first installment in a three-part series that will look at Pennsylvania's correctional system, public policies that have worked in other states, and provide a blueprint to bring Pennsylvania's corrections system into the 21st century.
Between 1940 and 1980, Pennsylvania's prison population remained relatively stable, averaging 7,000 inmates. Today, there are more than 50,000 offenders in PA state prisons.
What happened?
In the 1960s, the commonwealth experienced a significant increase in crime, and the public rightly demanded better safety. Police responded, and by the 1980s violent crime rates began to stabilize and eventually decrease. Yet the prison population continued to skyrocket.
Pennsylvania's inmate population has drastically outpaced crime rates. As the prison population exploded, the state needed more prisons, staff and tax dollars.
Since 1980:
- Pennsylvania's incarceration rate has increased by 500 percent.
- The annual cost per inmate has tripled from $11,447 to $35,188 in 2011.
- Pennsylvania has added 18 new prisons—with more on the way, each costing about $200 million to build.
- State corrections spending has increased 1,700 percent and is now the third-largest department in the General Fund Budget.
The unprecedented prison population growth at unsustainable costs was caused by a breakdown in our criminal justice system, not an increase in crime or statewide population growth.
As Pennsylvania's Corrections Sec. John Wetzel advocates, we need to replace ineffective correction policies with those that lower crime rates, reduce re-offending, and control spending. Stay tuned: Next we’ll examine Pennsylvania's current corrections programs and proven public policies that have worked in other states to reduce both crime and waste.
posted by KATRINA CURRIE | 08:30 AM | 0 comment
