Corrections Reform Proves a Win-Win

Unprecedented reductions in the prison population, $69.9 million in taxpayer savings, and lower recidivism rates all indicate that the 2012 corrections reforms are working.

Earlier this month Don Gilliland over at the Tribune Review chronicled some of the big accomplishments of the two-year-old initiative to get smart on crime:

The drop in prison population in 2014 ‘was the largest one-year drop in our population since 1971, and only the fourth time in the past 40 years that our population has shown an annual decrease, rather than an increase,’ said Bret Bucklen, Corrections’ director of planning, research and statistics.

The state ended the calendar year with 50,756 inmates. Four years ago, the prison population was expected to top more than 56,000 inmates by the end of 2014.

My colleague Nate Benefield points out that fewer prisoners means no new guards to hire, no new prisons to build and no need to pay other states to board our prisoners (which we did in 2009). All of those developments mean big savings for taxpayers.

The drop in inmates avoided approximately $69.9 million in costs in 2014 alone, and a total of $222 million during Corbett’s four-year tenure, according to estimates from the department.

Overall, the corrections budget for 2015-16 is still set to increase, thanks to rising pension costs for corrections officers, but the overall fiscal situation is much more manageable today thanks to the actions taken two years ago.

And the final bit of good news? Governor Wolf’s decision to retain Secretary of Corrections John Wetzel indicates the reforms will continue, improving both the quality and cost-efficiency of our prison system.