Monetary Savings for the Community While incarceration is necessary in some cases to ensure public safety, locking up nonviolent offenders costs the community money without providing a long-term solution. The alternative of safely supervising certain offenders in the community, while allowing them to remain with their families, employed and contributing to society can address the country’s costly addiction to incarceration. Our Alternative Sentencing Program develops unique and individualized programs for each case. We work with the offenders, the court, and the community to keep participants moving forward towards being positive and productive members of their communities The Vera Institute of Justice published a report in 2016 showing that while Pennsylvania’s prison population has decreased by 0.5%, prison spending has increased by 22.3%. Pennsylvania ranks as the 8th highest in inmate costs in the United States with a cost of $42,727 per year per inmate. In 2015, the PA prison population was 50,366, which resulted in over 2 billion dollars spent on incarceration. With such a large allocation of funds citizens should demand the most effective practices for public safety. Incarceration is necessary in some cases, but has proved to be inefficient for nonviolent offenders. This money should be used to strengthen and build up communities.
Source: Moorehouse, E. (2018).“The True Cost of Incarceration in Pennsylvania: Corruption at the Heart of America’s Private Prison System.” Bulletin Represent Us. The ACLU’s report, “At America’s Expense: The Mass Incarceration of the Elderly,” finds that Americans fifty years and older are a population with a relatively low risk to public safety, but with high cost to keep locked up. Our prison system currently imprisons 246,600 Americans fifty and older. It costs $34,135 per year to imprison the average prisoner, but $68,270 per year to imprison a prisoner fifty years of age and older. Many of the clients of Aleph’s Alternative Sentencing program are members of this population. Aleph’s Alternative Sentencing Program is a cost saving and efficient alternative to incarceration. Halfway houses, work release programs, house arrest, and day reporting programs are much lower cost to operate. As a result, local, state, and federal governments can invest in other programs such as victim services and addiction treatment. Aleph and other nonprofits can help ease the burden on the criminal justice system and ultimately generate savings for taxpayers. Our Alternative Sentencing Program is a humane, cost-effective approach to reducing crime in our communities.
