Pennsylvania can’t afford to ignore alternatives to prison, By Rep. Ronald G. Waters

Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections recently announced its plan to cancel the construction of a $200 million, 2,000-bed state prison for Fayette County. In addition, this facility would have cost the taxpayers an additional $50-60 million a year to operate. As a Department of Corrections spokesperson noted, since it would have been built in Southwestern Pennsylvania— while most prisoners are from the eastern part of the state—the prison would have undermined re-entry efforts that prepare inmates to return to their families and communities.

The new prison is unnecessary, and I applaud the decision by Governor Corbett and his administration to abandon that proposal. Building more prisons does not sound like a public safety plan, it sounds like a plan for more criminal activity to occur. It is easy to decide to build another prison, but it is hard to create meaningful programs which help eliminate crime in our communities. I would like to see a plan to reduce crime, rather than one which only reacts to crime. With the high levels of recidivism in our state, there is clearly more work to be done by the Dept. of Corrections.

Why should we spend taxpayer dollars to incarcerate more nonviolent offenders when there are more appropriate and effective alternatives to help them? Each inmate costs the state an average of $33,000. Is this money being well spent?

Now that I have returned to the House Judiciary Committee, I look forward to working on these issues. I am exploring the problems in the criminal justice system that lead to the incarceration of those for whom prison is not the proper response to deal with their behavior. This includes individuals who are in need of counseling for anger management or mental health issues, or treatment for substance abuse.

I want to work together with my colleagues to adopt the efforts employed by other states that effectively handle criminal behavior. For example, one of the bills I am introducing will bring the Dept. of Corrections and the Board of Probation and Parole under one roof, a method used by other states to streamline government.

Our commonwealth cannot continue to increase its corrections funding as 27 other states—including even Texas, and many others facing budget shortfalls— have reduced their prison population. The Commonwealth sent 2,100 of its prisoners to Michigan and Virginia at a cost of $62 per inmate per day, and Pennsylvania’s taxpayer generated revenue was outsourced along with them. This year, 1,100 of our state prisoners currently incarcerated in Michigan are returning back to Pennsylvania facilities.

I am never opposed to putting violent offenders in prison, but let us make sure that those who are in there deserve to be there. 90 percent of the people who are already incarcerated will return to the streets, to their neighborhoods.

I offer thanks to the Governor and the judiciary committees of the House and Senate for getting involved and realizing that there is a better way than incarcerating people who are only a threat to themselves. Congratulations to the Corrections Secretary-designee John Wetzel for stepping to the plate and tackling these issues head on. We look forward to continuing to find ways to be good stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars, and to enact strong laws that improve government services and reap real benefits and improve public safety to all Pennsylvanians.