PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Editorial: …Pennsylvania’s prison halfway houses are a failure. More felons who spent time in halfway houses return to jail than among those released directly from prison to the streets…
Wetzel ordered an in-house study, which showed that 67 percent of inmates released from halfway houses wound up back in jail within three years, compared with 60 percent of inmates released directly from prisons. “Let’s stop continuing to do the same thing the same way and expect a different result,” said Wetzel.
He plans to renegotiate contracts with the 38 private operators of halfway houses to give them incentives to cut down on recidivism or else be put on a path to lose their contracts. Wetzel is giving the operators of all halfway houses, including 13 run by the state, a year to improve. Altogether, the halfway houses cost the state $110 million annually… (more)
EDITORIAL: When treating drug addicts, there is an effort to discourage patients from spending time with others. By placing prisons in an environment surrounded by ex-convicts, how much success can we expect?
