Secretary of corrections favors alternative drug sentences
Pennsylvania Secretary of Corrections, Jeffrey Beard, said Friday that a number of alternative drug sentences can help lessen the burden on both the county and state prison systems. During a meeting with the Herald-Standard editorial board, Beard said programs like drug courts can help reduce re-offense and put small-time drug offenders on a different track.
The state’s prisons operate on a $1.345 billion budget, Beard said. Part of that budget is the $28,000 per inmate, per year that it costs to house prisoners serving state sentences. Beard said earlier this month, the state prison system hit about 42,000 inmates, a 1,000-inmate growth since last year.
Many are drug offenders, in prison due to mandatory sentences, often associated with the amount of drug involved in the case, Beard said. But putting drug offenders in prison, where they aren’t getting the treatment that could stop them from going out and using or selling drugs again, isn’t necessarily the most effective course of action, he said.
With drugs, there is an addiction, and “They’re going to go right back into it if you don’t solve the problem.”
Drug courts, Beard said, are prevalent across the country, but there are only about a dozen in Pennsylvania.
The courts function similarly to the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) program, Beard said. A judge hands down a sentence for longer-term treatment, and follows up with defendants. If they complete the sentence, staying drug and violation free, then they are discharged from the program and their record expunged.
If they fail, Beard said they are subject to a more traditional sentence.
Federal funds are available to start up the drug court, but Beard said funding them ultimately becomes the responsibility of the county. While it sounds like an expenditure, Beard said that across the board, counties have realized savings because they have lower prison populations, and a lower re-offense rate.
“The best thing for these people (less severe drug offenders) is to get them treatment early on,” Beard said.
He also cited traditional, restrictive and state intermediate punishment as potential ways to help drug offenders instead of clogging the already crowded court system.
In Fayette’s system, the traditional intermediate punishment sentence is served with a period of house arrest, and includes an evaluation by the county’s drug and alcohol commission. That evaluation could result in treatment, but generally, it is not long-term.
Beard said neither an evaluation nor short-term treatment is going to help curtail someone with a drug problem.
“If you send someone to a 30-day inpatient program, you’re flushing money down the toilet,” he said.
If such a short-term program works, the defendant probably did not need help anyway, Beard said.
He said studies have shown that a minimum of 90 days in treatment is necessary to start helping someone with a drug problem.
Courts also have the option of restrictive intermediate punishment, which is a long-term sentence to treatment. In this case of this type of intermediate punishment, there is no expungement, and it becomes part of a criminal record. District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon did not return a call to see if Fayette County uses this option.
Money for that program is available through a grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.
Recently, Gov. Ed Rendell signed the state intermediate punishment bill, paving the way for another tier of help. Drug offenders in the state intermediate punishment program are given a two-year sentence in a state prison, foregoing mandatory sentences.
During that time, however, Beard said inmates go through several transitions that always stress recovery. In prison they are in a therapeutic community with others who have drug problems. Eventually, they move out into the actual community, but are still under state prison care.
“I would like to see us be more aggressive in the diversionary programs in Pennsylvania,” Beard said.
Prisons, Beard said, are meant for the violent criminals.
He said Rendell is hoping to push for mandatory sentences for sex offenders, including a possible regulation that could imprison people convicted of three rapes for life.
Beard said mandatory sentences for sex offenders make sense. Even though those types of offenders are in treatment programs, the rate of success is lower than for drug programs.
“The consequences of failure is so much great than if someone goes out and sells drugs again,” Beard said.
Rendell is also looking toward legislation that will help curtail methamphetamine production, including trying to find a way to regulate the sale of certain legal drugs used to make it, Beard said.