Prison, sentencing reform needed in Pennsylvania

February 20, 2011

Editor, the Record:

During the televised Pennsylvania House Appropriations Committee meeting of Feb. 2, ideas were presented to cut Pennsylvania's debt, including court and Department of Corrections costs.

Shamefully, the United States has the highest per-capita prison population in the world. Parade Magazine published Virginia U.S. Senator Jim Webb's article concerning the excessive U.S. prison population.

Pennsylvania prison overcrowding is so intense that we are sending inmates to Michigan and Virginia prisons, and placing state inmates in county jails. Consequently, Pennsylvania dollars are sent outside Pennsylvania's border, inmates in county jails are unable to complete "programs" needed for parole, and there exists a potential violation of inmates' Eighth Amendment rights.

Some ideas to decrease DOC spending are:

1. Release inmates who have served 10 or more years as time-served.

2. Abolish the Parole Board so that inmates who have served one-half their sentence and completed their "programs" may be automatically released with supervision.

3. Utilize electronic monitoring rather than incarceration.

4. Release with supervision the "mentally ill" and physically disabled. The DOC is completely unable to meet the needs of those with mental and/or physical disabilities.

5. Change the sentencing guidelines to abolish excessive sentences.

6. Allow natural/alternative medical care for inmates. Natural remedies are known to be less expensive, more effective, and carry fewer side effects than allopathic treatments, and may contribute real rehabilitative results.

If the Pennsylvania DOC is to exist at all, it must be beneficial to the health, well-being, and positive development of each inmate. Anything less does not support the concept of rehabilitation.

DEBBY RABOLD

Effort

 

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