Five months after calling upon the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to support a four-bill prison reform package that would place more responsibility on the state for approximately 200 state-sentenced prisoners housed in Bucks County Department of Corrections facilities, Commissioners James F. Cawley, Esq., chairman, Charles H. Martin and Diane M. Ellis-Marseglia, LCSW applauded the legislature for today’s passage of House Bills 4, 5, 6, and 7.
“This is a significant step toward providing relief for the taxpayers of Bucks County, who have borne the burden of housing state inmates for too long,” Chairman Cawley noted. “We congratulate the members of the Bucks County delegation in Harrisburg for their foresight, and we ask that Gov. Rendell sign it into law as quickly as possible.”
The bills call for confinement reimbursement (HB4), permission for counties to utilize state Department of Corrections (DOC) transportation resources to move inmates as well as to encourage the use of video conferencing (HB5), authority for county judges to grant parole to inmates serving state sentences (HB6) and improvements to the process by which the DOC can transfer seriously ill inmates to receive care (HB7).
During April, the Board of Commissioners sent a letter to the Bucks County delegation, urging it to “support the entire four-bill prison reform package without amendment.”
Approximately 12 percent of inmates who are serving state sentences in Bucks County’s maximum/minimum custody facilities are serving state sentences. The cost to house inmates in the Bucks County Correctional Facility (BCCF) is $85 per day per inmate. The cost to house inmates in the Men’s and Women’s Community Corrections Center is $62 per day per inmate. Together, those inmates cost the county more than $5 million annually.
September 24th, 2008
