Corrections Chief Defends Budget Increase

The head of Pennsylvania's Department of Corrections is asking for more money this year. He says the request is justified.
Governor Ed Rendell has described this year's budget as "status quo," with most departments receiving level or slightly reduced spending.
However, a major exception is Corrections, which would see a 137 million dollar increase to its 1.75 billion dollar budget.
Secretary Jeffery Beard says the funding is needed to maintain control of an ever-growing prison population.
Without the proper staffing, and the ability to outsource some prisoners from overcrowded facilities, Beard says there could be violence.

"And we're going to go back to where we were in the late 1980s, where we had serious riots at Camp Hill. We had riots at Huntington, at Rock View. And that was all because we didn't have the resources, and we had too many inmates in our system, and we didn't have a place to put them."

Beard told members of the House Appropriations Committee Pennsylvania currently has more than 51-thousand people in its corrections system.