As with most political debates about spending on state corrections
systems across the country, the “truth” often depends on which side of
the fence you’re standing.
The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) has been trumpeting
its ability to shave costs by introducing proposed prison reform
policies. The result is what is being called a “historic” moment in
corrections history wherein no annual increase in budget has been
requested – unlike the average $81 million annual increase that is
typically conferred.
Policymakers attribute the savings to their dedication to trimming
the fat in the state’s corrections program by improving department
processes, by canceling construction plans of at least one new
corrections facility, and by reducing the number of misdemeanor
offenders that are sent to prison.
This last has caused no small amount of contention among Governor Tom
Corbett’s Justice Reinvestment Working Group, which is charged with
hammering out the new policy by the end of June 2012. Public
disagreement has been aired regarding the plan to forgo sending some
misdemeanor offenders to prison in an attempt to draw down the prison
population.
What’s more, there is disagreement on a larger scale with the DOC’s
pronouncements of savings in the first place, noting that while Governor
Corbett has sidelined the plan to build a new facility in Fayette
County, he is moving forward with the construction of three new prisons
and the expansion of nine existing facilities that will cost taxpayers
an estimated $685 million. Decarcerate PA, a group spearheading protest
against such expansion, recently accused the governor in an open letter
of kowtowing to the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association,
which donated $102,000 to his campaign.
If Decarcerate PA has its facts straight (which the Governor claims
it does not), then “saving” $81 million next year will not seem so
historic after all.
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