Mandatory sentences take some blame for massive prison spending increases

by Caleb Taylor

HARRISBURG — Reforming mandatory sentencing laws is one solution to a surging prison population and soaring costs for the Department of Corrections, say some officials. 

From 1980 to 2010, the state Department of Corrections, or DoC, budget increased by more than 1,700 percent, from $94 million to $1.7 billion. During that same period, the prison population swelled from 8,243 inmates to 51,321 inmates. The 2011 prison population numbers were not available.

In the recently passed state budget, DoC accounted for 7.4 percent of the general fund, or $1.89 billion, the third largest chunk behind the state departments of education and public welfare.

This crisis has some lawmakers advocating for changes to current criminal justice policies.

However, 70 percent of the DoC budget pays for employees’ salaries and benefits with remaining funds going toward items such as housing inmates and prison operating costs, said Susan McNaughton, DoC press secretary.

Calls to the Pennsylvania State Correction Officers Association, the union that represents prison guards, were not returned.

The costs of housing an inmate increased from $11,447 to $32,986 during the past 30 years, $7,000 of which included food and health care for inmates, said McNaughton.

These escalating costs are in response to “some mandatory (minimum) sentences that obviously impacted our population,” said McNaughton.

A mandatory minimum sentence restricts a sentence length from falling below a certain minimum required by law. For instance, if a mandatory minimum sentence requires one year in prison for an offense, a judge cannot impose a lesser sentence.

“Building more prisons is not the solution,” said state Rep. Thomas Caltagirone, D-Berks, minority chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. “We should focus more on … doing away with mandatory (minimum) sentences.”

Others said mandatory sentences are a necessary tool for protecting society from dangerous criminals.

“If they’re (criminals) found guilty, they should do their time,” said state Rep. Ron Marsico, R-Dauphin, majority chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. “Mandatory sentences are mostly for those that commit serious crimes like raping a child or dealing drugs to children.” 

The most recent 2010 annual report of the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing, a legislative commission designed to create a consistent and fair sentencing policy, stated mandatory minimums cause longer prison terms and an increasing prison population, which increases DoC costs.

“Mandatory minimums began to be used more frequently in the late 1980s,” said Mark Bergstrom, the commission’s executive director. “If you have mandatory (minimum) sentences in place, it raises the length of all sentences in general.”

Richard Long, executive director of the Pennsylvania District Attorney’s Association, said his organization supports all existing mandatory minimums.

In 1980, the state prisons housed 80 percent, or 11,346, violent offenders and 20 percent, or 2,798 non-violent offenders. By 2010, violent offenders comprised 47 percent, or 24,101, of the population, while non-violent offenders increased to 20,008, or 39 percent.

Crimes committed by violent offenders include murder, rape and robbery. Non-violent offenders’ crimes include possession of narcotics and drunken driving.

According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, an annual report on crime statistics by the federal Department of Justice, Crime Index offenses in Pennsylvania decreased by 30 percent from 373.6 per 100,000 people in 1980 to 261.7 in 2009. Crime Index offenses are considered to be the most serious crimes and most likely to be reported like murder, rape and robbery.

Taylor is an intern with the Pennsylvania Independent