Senate Passes Greenleaf Prison Reform Bills
The Pennsylvania Senate voted in prison reform statues designed to alleviate overcrowding.
Senate Passes Greenleaf Prison Reform Bills
HARRISBURG - Today, the Pennsylvania Senate approved three prison reform bills sponsored by Senator Stewart J. Greenleaf. The bills (SB 1145, 1161, 1275) would provide for alternative sentencing programs for non-violent offenders, allow offenders with short minimum sentences to serve their time in community corrections centers, and provide punishment alternatives for technical parole violators.
The state's inmate population has increased by a staggering 618% between 1980 and 2010 (from 8,243 in 1980 to over 51,000 inmates in 2010). If the prison population continues to increase at the current rate, beginning in 2012 Pennsylvania may have to build a new prison every year at a cost of over $200 million to build and $60 million annually to operate. The past five years have seen the sharpest increase in incarceration, exacerbated by a two month moratorium on parole following the shooting of a Philadelphia police officer in 2008. The three new facilities currently under construction are expected to open in 2013 and will be immediately filled to capacity.