Wagner, Greenleaf Call For A Reduced Prison Population
By Christina Gongaware, Contributing Writer
Auditor General Jack Wagner and state Senator Stewart Greenleaf (R-Montgomery) are leading the charge to lower the number of inmates in Pennsylvania prisons, which is rising faster than in any other state, by offering alternatives other than incarceration to nonviolent offenders.
40 percent, or 19,000, of the current prison population have been convicted of nonviolent crimes. Wagner would like to cut that number in half and says that by doing so, the state could save $350 million over four years.
“With Pennsylvania facing its greatest budget crisis since the Great Depression, we must look for sustainable savings in every nook and cranny of state government, and that includes the criminal-justice system, which is one of the three biggest drivers of increased spending over the past decade,” Wagner said.
Data from Wagner’s office reads that Pennsylvania’s prison population is five times higher than it was 30 years ago, while the price per prisoner has nearly tripled.
“While most economic sectors in the commonwealth remain mired in recession, prisons remain Pennsylvania’s largest growth industry,” Wagner said.
Greenleaf said that states such as Texas, California and New York have cut costs by renovating existing prisons rather than constructing new ones, decreasing mandatory sentencing and scaling back on prison sentences for nonviolent offenders.
Greenleaf is also sponsoring Senate Bill 100 to incorporate such changes, which he hopes to include in Gov. Corbett’s 2011-12 budget.
Criminologist and Carnegie Mellon University professor Alfred Blumstein also noted the importance of reducing the prison population.
“[Prison population growth] is the fastest growing component of state expenditures and therefore it’s a natural target for cost-containment and for cost reduction,” said Blumstein. “And what’s been intriguing to me, in our highly politicized, highly polarized political environment, this is an opportunity for consensus.”
“It really requires a rethinking of the whole criminal-justice system approach to what is, really, a public health problem,” he said.
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2 Responses
They are building more prisons cells then houses in Pennsylvania. It seems like they only let out people they are most likely to come back.
Pennsylvania has more juvenile lifers then all the world combined. Most of the juvenile lifers were not even the one’s who did the deed. A lot of the were with adults who encouraged to accompany them on a burglary or robbery.
https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2014/may/19/states-adopt-sentencing-changes-following-supreme-court-ruling-juvenile-lifers/
Black Lifers in Pennsylvania — Prudence Morgan 2011-07-09 18:02 on behalf of John Griffin / Lifer:
As more black lifers leave prison due to death by cancer and old age, than by the commutation process, black legislators sit on their hands and say nothing. If justice was applied equally in Pennsylvania, this would be acceptable.
Recently Senator Greenleaf, Republican from Montgomery County, spoke of PA law requiring new evidence of factual innocence other than DNA must be presented within 60 days, and now says the 1995 statute was never intended to prevent serious appeals. He should be commended for calling change to the PCRA statute. Black legislators should be ashamed for not speaking out. The man Greenleaf spoke up for is white, and imprisoned for over 30 years, after being convicted of THREE murders and sentenced to 30 to 60 years, rather than LIFE. Had he been black, in Pennsylvania, he would have received the death penalty or at least life without parole. Black legislators should stop trembling, grow a back bone and find a voice and speak up for black citizens in this state before they cross over to the Republican party, as they seem to be the only party with the courage to do what is right.
J. Griffin / Lifer
Philadelphia