Acting A.G. opposes alternative sentencing
By Jim Panyard | PA Independent
Professionals working in the Office of the Attorney General will not get a pay raise this year, and neither will managerial employees.
Acting Attorney General William Ryan presented a budget proposal with no increases other than contractually mandated 2.5 percent raises for unionized members of the office and increases in pension and health care costs for all employees.
It will be the third year in a row that staff professionals and managers have seen their pay frozen.
During the past two years, the department eliminated 80 jobs and closed five Consumer Protection offices around the state, Ryan said. He said 24 vacant positions will not be filled in the proposed budget, leaving a complement on 728 employees.
Ryan was Gov. Tom Corbett’s top prosecutor when the governor was attorney general. He is heading the department until Linda Kelly is confirmed by the state Senate as Corbett’s hand-picked replacement. No date is set for Kelly's confirmation hearing.
If confirmed, Kelly would be the state’s first female attorney general since the position became an elected office in 1980. She has promised not to run election after finishing Corbett’s term, which expires in 2012.
The acting attorney general is seeking $116 million in funding for the next fiscal year, compared to the $114 million it is currently receiving. Corbett proposed to allocate the department $116 million in his budget presentation last week.
Under questioning, Ryan said he would not favor reducing mandatory sentencing laws and special treatment for nonviolent offenders as a way to alleviate the state’s prison overcrowding problem.
“The best thing we can do (with criminals) is incarcerate them. That’s the way we best protect the public,” Ryan said .
Alternative and reduced sentencing has been advocated as one way to slow the growth of Pennsylvania's prison costs. In a February report, state Auditor General Jack Wagner said 40 percent of the state's prisoners are nonviolent offenders.
Each inmate costs Pennsylvania taxpayers about $33,000 per year, according to Wagner's report.
“With Pennsylvania facing its greatest budget crisis since the Great Depression, we must look for sustainable savings in every nook and cranny of state government, and that includes the criminal-justice system, which is one of the three biggest drivers of increased spending over the past decade,” Wagner said in February.
According to the state Department of Corrections, the prison population has jumped from 8,200 in 1980 to more than 51,000 at the end of 2010. The state's prisons have a collective capacity of about 48,000.
Despite the overcrowding in prisons, one of Corbett's first moves as governor was to cancel a proposed new prison in Fayette County. During his budget address, Corbett also pushed for sentencing reforms.
"We need to think smarter about how and when and how long to jail people," said Corbett. "We need to be tough on crime but we also need to consider the fiscal implications of our prison system."
State Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, has introduced a package of sentencing reforms including increased funding for treatment programs, parole and probation.
Ryan said there was little his office could do about an estimated $500 million in annual welfare fraud mentioned earlier in the day by Auditor General Jack Wagner.
“We deal very little with recipient fraud. We deal mostly with provider fraud,” Ryan told the Appropriations Committee.
Ryan said welfare fraud should be pursued by the Office of Inspector General, “which has the power to investigate and prosecute those cases.”
Ryan said three attorneys, six agents and five support staff have been lost during the past three years from the Consumer Affairs Division. None have been replaced. Consumer Affairs receives 46,000 complaints per year, Ryan said. He said he did not know how many employees are currently in the Consumer Protection Office.
“We are doing the best we can and trying to find ways to deal with it,” said Ryan.
His department is adding a gambling industry investigator, Ryan said, because of an “uptick” in complaints about the state’s gaming industry. He said a plan to add the Gaming Control Board’s 72-member Bureau of Investigations to the Attorney General’s office could be problematic, but would be handled “If you (the General Assembly) give us the money.”
The committee also was reminded by Ryan’s testimony the state currently owes counties $10.5 million to supplement the salaries of local district attorneys. That figure will increase to $17.7 million if no payments are made this year. A lawsuit by Montour County to settle the issue is currently pending in Commonwealth Court.
When asked about the “War on Drugs,” Ryan said the state was making progress.
The Attorney General’s office, working with combined county and municipal task forces, made 6,421 drug-related arrests in 2010. There were 5,325 drug-related arrests made in 2009.
He also pointed to federal data that indicate a continuing decline in drug use across the nation, particularly among younger people.
“We must continue to do all we can to fight the war on drugs,” he said.
