Mandatory sentences contribute to spending - pottsmerc.com

Mandatory sentences contribute to spending - pottsmerc.com

"By Caleb Taylor, PA Independent

HARRISBURG — Reforming mandatory sentencing laws is one solution to a surging prison population and soaring costs for the Department of Corrections, say some officials.

From 1980 to 2010, the state Department of Corrections, budget increased by more than 1,700 percent, from $94 million to $1.7 billion. During that same period, the prison population swelled from 8,243 inmates to 51,321 inmates. The 2011 prison population numbers were not available.

In the recently passed state budget, the Department of Corrections accounted for 7.4 percent of the general fund, or $1.89 billion, the third largest chunk behind the state departments of education and public welfare.

This crisis has some lawmakers advocating for changes to current criminal justice policies.

However, 70 percent of the Department of Corrections budget pays for employees' salaries and benefits with remaining funds going toward items such as housing inmates and prison operating costs, said Susan McNaughton, Department of Corrections press secretary.

Calls to the Pennsylvania State Correction Officers Association, the union that represents prison guards, were not returned.

The costs of housing an inmate increased from $11,447 to $32,986 during the past 30 years, $7,000 of which included food and health care for inmates, said McNaughton.

These escalating costs are in response to "some mandatory (minimum) sentences that obviously impacted our population," said McNaughton."