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| State's top jailer says system broken |
| By thetimes-tribune.com - David Falchek |
| Published: 06/11/2012 |
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Pennsylvania -- The state is broke and the state corrections system is broken, but the latter is in the midst of a fix, Pennsylvania's top jailer said Sunday. Secretary of the state Department of Corrections John E. Wetzel outlined the problems and steps being taken to correct them at the National Convocation of Jail & Prison Ministry at the University of Scranton. Pennsylvania's prison population is proportionally larger and growing much faster than neighboring states - even as Pennsylvania crime is decreasing, Mr. Wetzel said. One of the only states that sends offenders found guilty of misdemeanors to state prison, the commonwealth currently houses 5,000 such offenders, he added. At any given time, hundreds of inmates eligible for parole are waiting for a hearing. Even after a hearing, an inmate waits an average of 100 days for paperwork to be processed. The number of inmates who spend the maximum of their sentence in prison is increasing. All that time in prison translates into tens of millions of dollars in state costs annually, costs that are unnecessary, Mr. Wetzel said. "Our response to crime is unequal to crime itself," he said. "When we have money, we are OK spending it to incarcerate people, aren't we? But now we are in a fiscal crisis." After his election, Gov. Tom Corbett halted construction of a prison. Since then, he and Mr. Wetzel have been working to reduce the flow of inmates to the state system and get inmates out as soon as their sentences and situations allow. The state is equipping the parole board to handle more cases and building special detention centers for technical parole violators and those sentenced to short minimum sentences. Mr. Wetzel praised special treatment courts such as mental health and drug court, noting that counties with alternative courts send fewer of those classes of inmates to state prison. Through the Judicial Reinvestment Program, the state will share the savings from the reduction in the corrections population with localities to help law enforcement, victim's advocacy and probation. Mr. Wetzel noted that none of the reforms call for reducing sentences or redefining crimes. Read More. |
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