Prison has become an entitlement program
Criminal-justice experts often attribute the increasing prison population, and rising costs, to harsher sentencing policies and anti-drug laws adopted in the 1980s. The conventional wisdom is that enforcement of these laws led to longer sentences and more time served.
The issue of recidivism continues to pose serious problems for state governments struggling to contain the costs of massive prison budgets. Pennsylvania spends approximately $2 billion annually on its Department of Corrections, a budget line-item our local government leaders, as well as taxpayers, fail to discuss.
There is another reason why our prison population and costs are rapidly increasing – inmates that actually do not want to leave prison. Our current prison environment allows incarcerated individuals to believe it is easier to stay in jail than to endure the responsibilities of becoming a productive citizen of society. Prision life becomes an entitlement program for many.
The Department of Corrections is a top-heavy, bureaucratic agency that creates useless policies and programs that fail to reduce the inmate population and its costs. It’s time our elected officials and citizens find the answers and address this costly burden on society and end these cascading series of failures.
Mark Say
LaBelle