The number of people incarcerated in state prison dropped to
47,370 inmates at the end of 2018 – a 1,068 decline from the prior year when
there were 48,438 people behind bars in the state Department of Corrections.
The state’s inmate population is down from 51,512 five years
ago, corrections data show.
The number of people behind bars has dropped each year Gov.
Tom Wolf has been in office.
“We need to focus on the work to make our criminal justice
system fairer, more equitable and more focused on rehabilitation,” Wolf said in
a statement calling for action on criminal justice reform earlier this month.
“I am committed to continuing this important work in my second term,” he said.
Wolf has made criminal justice reform a signature issue.
Wolf joined legal groups in rolling out a new program intended to help people
with old convictions to get their records sealed to make it easier to get to
jobs or rent property.
He said it’s just one step and called on the General
Assembly to act on additional reforms.
That includes recommendations from the state’s Justice
Reinvestment Initiative aimed at addressing the high cost of incarceration,
strengthening county probation programs and fixing sentencing guidelines.
He also called for reforming the post-trial criminal justice
system to focus on rehabilitation and preparing inmates to reenter society to
reduce the risk of recidivism.
The conservative think tank, the Commonwealth Foundation, on
Thursday said that the drop began two years before Wolf took office in 2014.
The state’s first version of the Justice Reinvestment
Initiative was signed into law in 2012 by Republican Gov. Tom Corbett.
The drop last year was the biggest yet, according to the
Commonwealth Foundation.
“This historic reduction in our prison population should be
celebrated,” said Nathan Benefield, vice president and COO for the Commonwealth
Foundation. “Seven years ago, Pennsylvania enacted a bipartisan corrections
reform package that has proven to be an unquestionable success,” said Nathan
Benefield, vice president and COO for the Commonwealth Foundation. “We are
locking up fewer people while crime rates continue to decline. t’s time for
lawmakers to build on this momentum and advance reforms that improve sentencing
and parole.”
Like Wolf, Benefield called on the General Assembly to act
on the new Justice Reinvestment Initiative reforms.
The state Senate last April unanimously approved the second
round of Justice Reinvestment Initiative reforms. The bills didn’t move in the
state House but state Rep. Jim Cox, R-Berks County, has already announced plans
to introduce legislation including those reforms in the new legislative
session.
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