Legislature Hears Expert Testimony on Pennsylvania Prison Reform
HARRISBURG, Pa. — State House and Senate judiciary committees recently held joint hearings on conditions inside state correctional facilities following a U.S. District Court ruling that re-imposed court monitoring of Pittsburgh jails, and the reopening of a state prison.
The joint house-senate panel heard testimony from correctional experts from the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America ‘s Prisons, including co-chairs Nicholas Katzenbach, former U.S. Attorney General, and John J. Gibbons, former Chief Justice of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
The panel investigation follows a January ruling that cited unsanitary conditions and inadequate medical care at Pittsburgh ‘s overcrowded jails as a violation of inmates’ civil rights. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed on behalf of 11 inmates by University of Pennsylvania law professor David Rudovsky. A similar lawsuit filed by Rudovsky 35 years ago led to court oversight of Philadelphia jails from 1971 to 2001.
During their testimony, Katzenbach and Gibbons praised Pennsylvania legislators for launching the joint-panel inquiry into prison conditions and for recognizing the negative impact that the current conditions have on society.
No mandatory national standards exist for prisons and only two other states — New York and Illinois — have independent commissions examining prison conditions.
The Panel heard from other commission members, including Tim Ryan, director of the Miami-Dade County Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in Florida , and Ray Krone, a former death row inmate cleared by DNA evidence, who discussed correctional system issues, such as violence, segregation, labor and oversight.
A panel of experts and advocates from the Pennsylvania correctional system followed the commissioners’ testimony with a discussion of specific conditions and problems in the state’s prisons and jails.
With Pennsylvania prisons struggling to house inmate populations, Governor Rendell announced the reopening of the state correctional facility at Pittsburgh in January. The 750-bed facility had been mothballed in 2005 due to high operating costs and problematic, outmoded design features.
Opening the minimum-security Pittsburgh facility, which will provide drug and alcohol treatment, is expected to cost the department $33 billion. The state has plans in place to increase the facility’s capacity by an additional 750 beds if inmate populations continue to grow.
The Commission on Safety and Abuse, which spent more than a year studying conditions and problems in U.S. prisons and jails, linked dangerous conditions and growing problems of violence to chronic overcrowding and recidivism across the prison system. It released its final report with recommendations for prison reform in June 2006.
The commission highlighted the need to create safe and healthy environments for inmates and corrections staff, and recommended increasing government and public oversight of correctional facilities.
The commission suggested that chronic prison overcrowding has contributed to the expansion of private detention facilities.
The commission also condemned the conditions in which correctional officers are forced to work. Correctional officers have higher rates of alcoholism and shorter life expectancies than other law enforcement officers, according to the report.
Commission on Safety and Abuse in America ‘s Prisons