COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE HEARING STATE CAPITOL MAJORITY CAUCUS ROOM ROOM 140 HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2009 9:00 A.M. VOLUME I OF IV PRESENTATION BY PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS AND PENNSYLVANIA BOARD OF PROBATION AND PAROLE BEFORE: HONORABLE DWIGHT EVANS, MAJORITY CHAIRMAN HONORABLE MATTHEW D. BRADFORD HONORABLE TIM BRIGGS HONORABLE H. SCOTT CONKLIN HONORABLE DAN FRANKEL HONORABLE JOHN T. GALLOWAY HONORABLE WILLIAM F. KELLER HONORABLE WILLIAM C. KORTZ II HONORABLE DEBERAH KULA HONORABLE BRYAN R. LENTZ HONORABLE KATHY MANDERINO HONORABLE CHERELLE L. PARKER HONORABLE JOSH SHAPIRO HONORABLE JOHN J. SIPTROTH HONORABLE GREG VITALI HONORABLE JAKE WHEATLEY HONORABLE JEWELL WILLIAMS ————————— JEAN DAVIS REPORTING 7786 Hanoverdale Drive • Harrisburg, PA 17112 Phone (717)503-6568 • Fax (717)566-7760 2 1 BEFORE (cont.'d): HONORABLE MARIO J. CIVERA, JR., MINORITY CHAIRMAN 2 HONORABLE GORDON DENLINGER HONORABLE BRIAN L. ELLIS 3 HONORABLE JOHN R. EVANS HONORABLE MAUREE GINGRICH 4 HONORABLE THOMAS H. KILLION HONORABLE DAVID R. MILLARD 5 HONORABLE RON MILLER HONORABLE SCOTT A. PETRI 6 HONORABLE DAVE REED HONORABLE DOUGLAS G. REICHLEY 7 HONORABLE MARIO M. SCAVELLO HONORABLE RICHARD R. STEVENSON 8 HONORABLE KATIE TRUE 9 ALSO PRESENT: 10 DEBBIE REEVES MAJORITY BUDGET ANALYST 11 EDWARD J. NOLAN MINORITY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 12 13 JEAN M. DAVIS, REPORTER 14 NOTARY PUBLIC 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 I N D E X 2 TESTIFIERS 3 NAME PAGE 4 JEFFREY A. BEARD, PH.D. 5 SECRETARY, PA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS....................4 6 CATHERINE C. McVEY 7 CHAIRMAN, PA BOARD OF PROBATION AND PAROLE................4 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 * * * 3 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN EVANS: The hour of 4 9 o'clock having arrived, I would like to reconvene 5 the House Appropriations Committee. 6 We have before us the Commissioner of 7 Corrections, or the Secretary of Corrections, right? 8 Is it the Secretary of Corrections? 9 SECRETARY BEARD: Secretary; yes. Yes, 10 Mr. Chairman. 11 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN EVANS: So would you 12 introduce yourself for the purpose of the record and 13 the person who is with you. 14 SECRETARY BEARD: I'm Jeffrey Beard, the 15 Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of 16 Corrections. 17 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN EVANS: Okay. 18 CHAIRMAN McVEY: And I'm Chairman 19 Catherine McVey of the Pennsylvania Board of 20 Probation and Parole. 21 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN EVANS: Thank you. 22 I would like to say good morning to both of 23 you. 24 SECRETARY BEARD: Good morning. 25 CHAIRMAN McVEY: Good morning. 5 1 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN EVANS: Can you talk a 2 little bit about your budget relating to the proposed 3 increase and what exactly is happening relating to 4 your department? 5 SECRETARY BEARD: Sure. 6 We're requesting a 10-percent increase in 7 our budget, which would be about $163 million, which 8 would bring our budget to $1.8 billion. 9 Ninety million dollars of that increase is 10 contractual salary and benefits for staff, you know, 11 for contracts that were put in place over the last 12 year. 13 Forty million dollars of the increase is for 14 increased housing, because my population continues 15 to grow and I continue to need more space for 16 inmates. 17 Twenty-six million dollars of the increase 18 is for increased medical care and to pay for the 19 increased inmates that we will have in the system. 20 And most of the medical increase is because of the 21 increased inmates as well. 22 I think out of the total $163 million, only 23 about $7 or $8 million is in there for inflationary 24 purposes. 25 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN EVANS: Okay. 6 1 As you look at the trends relating to your 2 department, and obviously you have just described 3 what is occurring for next year, what do you see in 4 the next 2 to 3 years relating to your department? 5 SECRETARY BEARD: Well--- 6 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN EVANS: You know, if an 7 increase of 10 percent is being asked for this year, 8 what do you see? 9 SECRETARY BEARD: Well, we see a continuing 10 growth of the inmate population over the coming 11 years. 12 We're projecting that between now and the 13 end of 2013, we will grow by about 8,500 inmates. 14 And that's even taking into account the legislative 15 package that passed last fall that should help bring 16 down our population by about 2,000 inmates. 17 So, you know, we see a continuing increase 18 in growth in the population, and, you know, then the 19 cost of running the department will go up as well. 20 Over 70 percent of the costs of our department is 21 personnel. And if you add more inmates in order to 22 have secure and safe and humane institutions, you 23 have to add more staff, and that increases the 24 costs. 25 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN EVANS: What about with 7 1 the prison package of bills that we passed, which was 2 recommended by the Administration in terms of, at 3 what point does that kick in to at least in some way 4 affect that number you describe between here and 5 2013? Does that affect that in any way? 6 SECRETARY BEARD: Well, it does. And 7 without that package, we think the growth would have 8 been about 10,500 between now and the end of--- 9 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN EVANS: So that's 1,500? 10 SECRETARY BEARD: About 2,000. 11 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN EVANS: About 2,000. It 12 will have an effect. 13 SECRETARY BEARD: That's correct. 14 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN EVANS: You say 8,500, so 15 about 2,000--- 16 SECRETARY BEARD: Yes. 17 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN EVANS: ---and it doesn't 18 increase it over to 10,000, is what you said. 19 SECRETARY BEARD: That's correct. 20 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN EVANS: Okay. 21 SECRETARY BEARD: And, you know, we're 22 trying to be conservative with that. The start-up 23 will be slow, so we will see very little impact this 24 year. 25 When you have something new, it always takes 8 1 awhile for people to understand it and for it to 2 start having an impact. We'll see a little more 3 impact next year, but then in 2011 and '12, there 4 should be greater impact from that legislative 5 package. 6 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN EVANS: Okay. 7 Let me say to the Board Chair of Parole and 8 Probation, talk a little bit about your budget. 9 CHAIRMAN McVEY: Our budget request for this 10 year will give us an 8.6-percent increase, which is 11 $7.6 million. It will take us up to $99.2 million. 12 That 8.3-percent increase is primarily for 13 personnel costs and costs to carry. Eighty-five 14 percent of our budget is personnel costs. This 15 budget proposal would include the addition of 16 30 field parole agents, which would allow us to 17 maintain the current workload and caseload ratio. 18 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN EVANS: Okay. 19 The same question I asked the Secretary of 20 Corrections in terms of the future -- 2 years, 21 3 years, 4 years out in terms of the trend. What do 22 you see in terms of the trend relating to parole and 23 probation? 24 CHAIRMAN McVEY: Well, the legislative 25 package that had passed through the rebuttable and 9 1 the RRRI parole doesn't increase so much the number 2 of offenders, it increases the speed with which they 3 are released. 4 So our population in the first year would 5 not be greatly impacted. In the second year, similar 6 to the Department of Corrections, we would then see 7 for us our population slightly increase and then it 8 would level out. 9 In terms of our overall population growth, 10 our current population is a little over 31,000. At 11 the end of this fiscal year, we're looking at 32,600, 12 and at the end of FY '09, we are looking at a 13 population of 33,600. 14 So we're increasing at a rate of about a 15 little over a thousand a year. 16 MAJORITY CHAIRMAN EVANS: Okay. 17 I would like to talk about, after both of 18 you have kind of put those numbers on the table 19 relating to the next year and looking toward the 20 future, in the case of Philadelphia, you may be aware 21 that there was a police officer who was shot and 22 killed, and in the last couple of years, there have 23 been a number of police officers who have been shot 24 and killed by individuals who were at one time or 25 another in the corrections system. 10 1 And obviously there's a struggle to figure 2 out, is there a way for us to know ahead of time or 3 have some sense of what's taking place. I've told 4 people over and over again that life means life in 5 Pennsylvania. When you go to prison, you're in there 6 for life, and you can describe that for yourself. 7 And I know that we in the Legislature, 8 responding to the people, pass the laws and put the 9 laws on the books, and your jobs are to manage the 10 laws that we put on the books.