Facts and Policy Reforms for Pennsylvania
Like most states, Pennsylvania’s prison population has exploded in recent decades, increasing by 504 percent between 1980 and 2016.
As of 2018, 47,177 people were imprisoned in the state — more than six times the size of its prison population in 1980. In 2016, Pennsylvania had the highest per capita rate of adult incarceration in the Northeast.
In Pennsylvania, the majority of new prison admissions in 2016 were for crimes that did not involve violence. One in five new admissions to Pennsylvania prisons that year, for example, was for a drug offense. Parole and probation violations are also key drivers of incarceration in Pennsylvania – the number of people entering prison for parole violations grew by 56.5 percent between 2006 and 2016, when 10,199 people were sent to prison after violating their parole.
When people do go to prison in Pennsylvania, they’re often there for a long time. In 2016, 28 percent of people imprisoned in the state had minimum sentences of longer than 10 years. The number of these “long-term inmates” has nearly doubled since 2000.
Unsurprisingly, Pennsylvania’s mass incarceration crisis has had an enormous impact on people of color, especially Black people. As of 2014, the state had the 11th-highest Black imprisonment rate in the country. While Black people make up only 10 percent of Pennsylvania’s population, they represent 47 percent of its prison population. Ending mass incarceration is a critical – although insufficient – step towards addressing racial disparities in Pennsylvania’s criminal justice system more broadly.
In 2014, the Latino imprisonment rate in Pennsylvania was the second highest in the country, more than three times that of white people. Women are also being sent to prison at alarming rates. Over the past decade, the female prison population in Pennsylvania has increased by 28 percent, while the male population increased by only 10 percent during the same time period.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Pennsylvania can dramatically reduce its prison population by implementing just a few sensible reforms:
- Reclassifying drug and minor property offenses as misdemeanors rather than felonies.
- Revamping state sentencing guidelines to reduce lengthy sentences.
- Promoting alternatives to incarceration like substance abuse treatment, mental health care, and other programs.
- Implementing reforms to limit the number of people sent to prison due to supervision violations, especially minor ones.
- Improving parole and release policies to ensure that more people are released earlier from prison.
If Pennsylvania were to follow these and other reforms outlined in this Smart Justice 50-State Blueprint, by 2025 it could have 27,717 fewer people in its prison system, saving over $2 billion that could be invested in schools, services, and other resources that would strengthen communities. (Total prison population reduction may be +/- 2 due to rounding.)
For more information, along with detailed breakdowns of Pennsylvania’s prison population and the reforms needed to reduce it, click here.