Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Pennsylvania Brings Inmates Home

The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections announced that 1,111 inmates housed in Michigan have returned to Pennsylvania. Last year, Pennsylvania sent about 2,000 prisoners to Michigan and Virginia due to prison overcrowding.

It cost $62 per day per inmate to house the prisoners in Michigan. That’s lower than the Pennsylvania average of $90 per day, but the inmates sent to Michigan were Pennsylvania’s least costly: healthy, well-behaved and requiring lower security, according to the Harrisburg Patriot-News.

The Pennsylvania prison population has leveled off, making it possible to return the inmates from Michigan. However, the inmates in Virginia will stay until at least the end of the year according to Secretary of Corrections John Wetzel.

According to the Patriot-News, the U.S. prison population declined for the first time in nearly 40 years, yet Pennsylvania led the nation in adding inmates. Since 1980, state spending on prisons has increased six times faster than spending on education. One Pennsylvanian in 248 is behind bars.

To read more: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/05/pa_prison_inmates_return_from.html

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