From the PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW:
With state prison costs continuing to skyrocket, Auditor General Jack Wagner on Thursday urged the Legislature to approve a Republican senator’s bill that would make it easier to send non-violent offenders to alternative-sentencing programs.
Wagner, a Beechview Democrat, issued a special report outlining the 500 percent growth in Pennsylvania’s prison population from 8,243 in 1980 to 51,487 in 2010. In 2009, Pennsylvania had the highest number of new inmates — 2,122 — of any state in the nation.
The cost per inmate nearly tripled from $11,477 in 1980 to $32,059 in 2009, Wagner said. The overall cost to taxpayers increased during the past 10 years from $1.17 billion to $1.6 billion, a 37 percent increase, he said…
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