As budget hearings got underway last week, Pennsylvania state lawmakers questioned officials with the state Department of Corrections about why they deserve a budget increase, even after deciding to close two prisons in Centre and Clearfield counties.
Gov. Josh Shapiro's record-setting $50.3 billion spending proposal for the year ahead requests $3.4 billion for the state Department of Corrections, which oversees the incarceration of nearly 40,000 people and employs some 15,000.
"After the closure of SCI Rockview and the Quehanna Bootcamp, there'll be approximately 6,000 open beds across all [state correctional institutions]," observed state Sen. Scott Martin, a Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations committee. "The question is: Why is the Commonwealth continuing to fund the remaining institutional capacity at existing levels?"
The inmates at those facilities have been transferred as of this month, said Christopher Oppman, DOC deputy secretary for administration. But staff remained at the facilities until the end of the week. Equipment at the sites will be liquidated, and will eventually be turned over to the Department of General Services.
But while facility closures will save the state $101.9 million this fiscal year, operating costs continue to grow, said Oppman. He cited a number of factors: unionized staff receiving annual pay bumps, a more expensive food contract with Aramark, and the growing cost of addiction treatment.
DOC officials said the department has seen a near-tripling of inmates receiving treatment for substance-use disorder in the past year. After the U.S. Department of Justice pressured state and county prisons to provide legally-required medical treatment for addiction, corrections staff began allowing inmates to start new prescription treatments instead of only offering meds to people who already had a prescription before their incarceration.
"Last year we had about 1,800 individuals on [medication-assisted treatment]. There's over 5,000 individuals at this point in time that are being treated with MAT and another 4,000 that are on the waiting list to see the addiction specialists," Oppman said. "That is our biggest increase year-over-year."
A vendor for addiction treatment won't be chosen for another three months, added Oppman, who did not give a final cost for the expanded program.
Staff from the closed facilities have been transferred to other prisons, which should save on hiring costs, corrections leaders said. Still, more than a third of new prison hires leave within the first nine months they're on the job. "And so we wanna get people who are the right fit for this agency," said Corrections secretary Laurel Harry.
Officials fielded dozens of questions Thursday from Senate and House Appropriations committees in separate hearings. They discussed staff turnover and institutional violence, but also new efforts to implement the use of body cameras for correction officers, and to distribute computer tablets to all inmates in the coming year. Both of those policies could reduce violence among inmates and against officers, Harry added.
Harry said there's been resistance from the prison officers' union on body cameras, but officials plan to work through the concerns workers may have on privacy. Parole officers will begin using body cameras in the coming months, she added.
"As soon as this spring we'll be rolling out the body cameras on the parole side and then … potentially look to [corrections officers] in the future," Harry said. It could cost $5.6 million to equip COs with the cameras, and more than $2 million for parole agents, she said.
But providing tablet computers to all inmates will come at no additional cost to the state, Harry said, after a $2.5 million contract with a to-be-determined vendor is finalized. The rollout is expected sometime this fall.
"That's something that I know our incarcerated population is excited about — we are equally excited," Harry said. "Other states that have implemented this type of tablet system have seen lower levels of violence in their facilities, so we really think that it could pay some dividends for us in other ways."
People in their cells can pay for entertainment, such as e-books and music downloads, and also send messages to people outside the facility. And as is current practice with phone calls and digital messaging, use of the tablets will be monitored by a state prison analytics and intelligence division, Harry said.
The expansion of tablet computers means physical mail will no longer enter the prisons, Oppman added. "The mail will come to them [digitally] and then we will no longer have to scan mail in Florida, in our contract we've had before. So there is a cost savings on that end."
Since 2018, physical letters and legal mail sent to inmates have been scanned by Florida company Smart Communications, which then forwards copied letters to the incarcerated recipient. State prison officials have said the process stops contraband, such as synthetic drugs that can be added to paper, from reaching inmates.
Nearly half of all inmates have purchased a tablet for $150 from vendor ViaPath Technologies, officials said. It's unclear if the same company will be chosen for the tablets-for-all contract, a DOC spokesperson said Thursday: "We are still working through the procurement process."
The vendor will pay the state for the opportunity to collect revenue from the cost of messaging, phone calls and downloaded apps.
In the state House Appropriations committee, Allegheny County Reps. La'Tasha D. Mayes and Emily Kinkead had the chance to ask about their legislative priorities, including maternal care for incarcerated women, the use of solitary confinement, and the expansion of an experimental Scandinavian-modeled unit. "Little Scandinavia," a housing unit that gives inmates more freedom and was first tested near Philadelphia, will expand to SCI Smithfield, Fayette and Cambridge Springs, corrections officials said.
But it was a $5 copay to see doctors in prison that Mayes focused on in her questioning.
She called it "a barrier to healthcare for inmates, especially those who don't have family support or are not able to earn the wages while they're incarcerated."
Oppman said $526,000 was collected from copays over the last year, which is used to help cover spending. And officials said the money is needed for a prison healthcare system that was badly stretched during the COVID-19 pandemic, when prison officials saw medical requests increase by up to 42%.
"Our providers simply could not keep up with the demand. They were not able to see individuals within 24 to 48 hours. The individuals who actually have chronic care conditions, they couldn't be seen, and it really overburdened our providers," Harry said.
The Corrections department ranks third in the state's costliest agencies, though it is billions behind the $20.6 billion spent on education and the $21.9 billion that covers human services. Senators heard from human services officials on Wednesday and the House will question that agency on March 5. House members are expected to question education department leaders on March 3, while Senators will hold their education hearing on March 5.