Here is the feel good story of the year: Pennsylvania is about to officially run out of prison space. To deal with the incarceration crisis, state officials are taking the drastic step of re-locating about 2,000 offenders to out-of-state facilities. The move will happen early next year.
According to a story from NBC 10, the state is already building a bunch of new prisons. However, that can't be the long-term solution to the problem for financial reasons.
Prison construction is the most expensive option for taxpayers. The four prisons now on the drawing board -- two on the grounds of Graterford prison in Montgomery County, one at Rockview prison in Centre County and one in Fayette County -- are expected to make available 8,000 beds by 2013 at a cost of about $800 million.
Officials said nonviolent offenders, mostly people convicted of property and drug crimes, account for more than half of the admissions surge. He and other speakers advocated changes to divert more of those people into community programs and reduce the number of parolees returned to prison for minor “technical” violations.
Prisons are expensive, so the state should be looking for alternative ways to handle the rising inmate population. However, the taxpayers are stil going to be footing the bill to send offenders to other states. Wouldn't it make more sense to also examine our sentencing laws and figure out if there are alternatives to incarcerating non-violent offenders?
What do you think? Sound off in the comments!
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I don't understand why weatherstripping is the new job answer, but building prisons to respond to the crime crisis is somehow never a legit provider of good jobs in security, social services, and health care. Like it or not, the "institutions" for the mentally ill who break the law are the state prison system, and to not provide for inmates' needs is essentially putting them in the street, homeless. To pretend that "drug criminals" are not committing serious crimes to support their habits is just wishful thinking of the left, a delusion we can't afford if we are to follow NYC and Chicago in reducing our crime rates in a lasting manner. There is no "alternative" to sentencing repeat violent felons, who are a disproportionately high number of inmate that PA wants to simply let out. It's not working, and it's supersaturating vulnerable neighborhoods with repeat violent offenders, too many for them to absorb.— CleanupPhilly- Renting prison space from states that have succeeded in decreasing their crime rates with three strikes and mandatory minimum sentencing makes sense for PA. There's no touchy-feely solution to having consequences for destructive actions. There's not enough money for the cost of properly monitoring parolees and probationers we have now.— CleanupPhilly
- Fence in Cardinal Dougherty and put armed gaurds in the hall ways.
- This is a feel-good story?? Legalize marijuana in Pennsylvania and we'll reduce the prison population by an extraordinary number. There are people being arrested for doing nothing more than enjoying this innocuous plant. If we're going to arrest people for smoking cannabis, we should outlaw alcohol and tobacco. This prohibition is costing all taxpayers a huge amount instead of bringing tax dollars in.— MainLineExRepublican
- "Mind over Matter" CleanupPhilly...Rendell and Nutter don't "Mind" and we don't "Matter"! It's all about shorting Public Safety to save money for "other things" like "No Bid" Contracts. Each Prison bed cost over $39,000 per year! Keeping an Inmate on the street costs about $2,700... Rendell is releasing 2,000 Prison Inmates per month (about 600 per month for Killadelphia)! Nutter was told what's been going on over 18 months ago, 4 months before SGT. Liczbinski was brutally murdered and he's done nothing, except to walk at the head too many Police Funerals and play the "I'm Angry" song... and us. Philadelphia hasn't started to bleed yet. Look at all the dead... all the rapes... all the shoot outs... just in the last year alone. We've even been called "The City of Death". The FEDs need to "Step Up"...and Rendell and Nutter need to "Step Off". Mr. U.S. Attorney General...you listen'n?— John Law
- MainLine, are you saying by releasing all pot users from prison you would alleviate PA's overcrowded prisons? Very liberal of you to make something up so you can whine about it. Exactly how many people are behind bars in prison for simply enjoying the innocuous plant? Put down the bong.— tr88
Comment removed.- Chain gangs to work dirty highways, and inner city abandonded areas, push through a quicker sentence and a repeat offender possibly thinking twice of the neighborhood he is trashing with his crimes, because he knows next week, he may be forced to cleanup his own mess.— GalRand
- ....and Komisar Pelosi is going to imprison those who fail to purchase a healthcare plan?— abnrgr
- prisons are full across the country...nothing new.— Ughhhh
MONEY AND JUSTICE DON'T MIX
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