By Ford Turner
Reading Eagle, Pa.
READING, Pa. — Beyond recent statistics that show recidivism, crime and the Pennsylvania prison population have all declined, state Department of Corrections Secretary John E. Wetzel on Friday pointed to another reason for optimism: Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed consolidation of corrections and the Board of Probation and Parole.
Wetzel, a Lebanon County native who once worked in Berks County Prison, said it makes sense to put incarceration and post-incarceration under one administrative roof.
“When we pass an offender from the prison to the community, that is the key time,” Wetzel said.
Wolf’s budget proposal for fiscal 2015-16 included about $2.3 billion for the corrections department, an increase of about 7 percent. But he also wants to fold the probation and parole agency into the department.
The governor’s staff said it will eliminate duplication in administration, produce better outcomes and might reduce recidivism and crime.
Wetzel said he expected proposed legislation on the consolidation would be introduced in Harrisburg in the next week or two.
He highlighted recent state police data that showed serious crimes in Pennsylvania declined from about 2,792 crimes per 100,000 residents in 2008 to 2,403 crimes per 100,000 in 2014. At the same, the number of inmates in the state prison system declined from more than 51,000 six months ago to 50,500 this month.
Wetzel said a recent study showed that states with prison system population declines also had reduced crime rates.
He used the word “exciting” to describe the latest numbers on recidivism, or relapse into criminal behavior by someone who has left the system.
Data showed that the six-month recidivism rate in 2013 declined to 19 percent from 24.1 percent in 2012, while the one-year rate dropped from 40.4 percent in 2012 to 35.1 percent in 2013.
Counties, he said, play a bigger role in reducing recidivism than the state.
The average state prison inmate has already been arrested seven or eight times. Those entering county facilities, he said, have a less extensive history and “can be taken off the track of crime and put back.”
He credited Berks with having creative programs that help push people out of a cycle of crime.