Parole, probation violations crowd Pennsylvania, U.S. prisons, report says

About half of those committed to a Pennsylvania state prison in 2017 were jailed because of a probation or parole violation, according to figures released Tuesday.

Around 7,400 people are in state prisons on any given day for a supervision violation, amounting to an annual cost of $334 million for state taxpayers to keep those offenders imprisoned for missteps such as committing a new crime or failing to pay fines.

The data are part of a nationwide report released by The Council of State Governments Justice Center in a first-of-its-kind, state-by-state examination of how many people in state prisons are there because of supervision violations.

“It forces us to really look at our rules — are they realistic? Do they make sense?” Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said.

Nationwide, 45% of state prison admissions are the result of probation or parole violations. One-quarter of those admissions are the result of a technical violation, a minor mistake such as failing a drug test or missing an appointment.

The report was the result of a partnership among the justice center, Arnold Ventures and the Association of State Correctional Administrators. Wetzel is the president of the association. Megan Quattlebaum, director of the justice center, said about one in four prisoners — or 280,000 people — are incarcerated nationwide for supervision violations, costing states $9.3 billion annually.

“Supervision fails nearly as often as it succeeds,” Quattlebaum said.

Pennsylvania is among 20 states in which more than half of prison admissions were the result of supervision violations. Technical supervision violations amounted to 25% of people in the state who were jailed for violating their parole in 2017, according to the data.

There were 45,575 inmates at Pennsylvana’s 25 state prisons in May, which is 97% of capacity, according to department statistics.

Pennsylvania’s figures do not include data about people on county parole or probation.

Juliene James, director of criminal justice with Arnold Ventures, said the report “should be a wake-up call” for state prison officials around the country.

She said there are several ways prisons could improve, including:

• Prohibit the re-incarceration of technical violators.

• Create incentives for people who succeed while on probation and/or parole.

• Eliminate fees that can go unpaid, potentially resulting in violations.

“The system … has grown to such a huge footprint and a financial cost that’s really unmatched as far as how fast it’s grown,” Wetzel said.

Pennsylvania has already put some focus on the issue, he said. Gov. Tom Wolf has proposed to reform the probation system by ensuring that technical violations don’t automatically mean a return to prison, among other criminal justice initiatives.

As a prison system in general, “We kind of default to what we’ve always done,” Wetzel said.

Anne Precythe, director of Missouri Department of Corrections, said officials there are faced with the need to build new multi-million dollar prisons to house an influx of inmates. Rather, they started changing supervision practices and eliminated the need.

“Data is what helps people like me … to inform my decision about what’s the best way to move forward,” she said.