On behalf of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, Lt. Gov. Mark Schweiker today returned to York's Weed and Seed target area to announce $11 million in funding for treatment-based programs for nonviolent offenders. A portion of the statewide grant will fund a new Day Reporting Probation Center on South Pine Street in the city's Weed and Seed target area.
The funds, awarded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD), provide an alternative to incarceration through residential or intensive outpatient-treatment programs. Offenders also may be sentenced to electronic monitoring, work-release centers, intense supervision, community supervision, and victim restitution.
"Weed and Seed is all about rehabilitating communities and creating opportunities for Pennsylvanians," Lt. Gov. Schweiker said. "That's why treatment-based intermediate punishment is so effective -- it holds nonviolent offenders accountable for their crime while helping them overcome their addiction to drugs and alcohol."
Lt. Gov. Schweiker noted that treatment-based intermediate punishment is a sensible investment, considering it costs taxpayers $18,500 a year to house an inmate in county jail as opposed to $6,000 to treat them on an outpatient basis.
Intermediate punishment, established in 1990 under Act 193, has been a priority of the Ridge Administration's criminal justice policy. Since 1995, $57.5 million of state funds have been invested in programs that provide an alternative to incarceration, with $31 million of that going toward treatment-based programs for offenders with substance-abuse problems.
In addition to treatment, offenders are required to pay restitution to victims and the costs associated with their supervision. A study commissioned by PCCD in 1999 revealed that 80 percent of the10,602 offenders who participated in an intermediate punishment program from1995 - 1997 successfully completed their sentences. Only 3 percent were re-arrested during that time. The study reported that an average of 70 jail days was saved per offender, signifying a savings of 742,140 jail days overall.
The counties that participated in the study collected more than $2.5 million in restitution and fees from offenders during that time. Schweiker also announced that York County's Adult Probation Department received $300,000 to open a Day Reporting Probation Center in the city's Weed and Seed target area. A probation officer and a treatment specialist will be housed at the center. Offenders will be required to report daily for treatment and urine testing for a six-month period. It is estimated that in the center's first year, a total of 50 nonviolent offenders will undergo treatment for drug and alcohol abuse, receive job training, and housing assistance.
As a result of this announcement, the Ridge Administration has provided nearly $1 million to the York Weed and Seed initiative since January 1999. "Weed and Seed is a long-term commitment to destroying the roots of crime and providing citizens with the opportunities to make a better life for themselves and their families," Lt. Gov. Schweiker said. "And York's new Day Reporting Probation Center allows the city to do just that -- reduce the amount of crime on the streets and provide nonviolent criminals with the chance to get help and really turn their lives around."
With a focus on community-driven prevention, Weed and Seed attacks the underlying roots that contribute to crime, such as unemployment, lack of a quality education, broken families and widespread poverty. The program complements the laws enacted during Gov. Ridge's Special Session on Crime in 1995.
The initiative builds on the success of the federal Weed and Seed concept of intensive law enforcement followed by aggressive neighborhood revitalization. The state model recognizes that -- regardless of size - no community is immune to crime. While the federal program targets only large metropolitan regions, the state model delivers Weed and Seed to smaller Pennsylvania communities, like southeast Lancaster.
Successful Weed and Seed programs already are under way in the cities of Lancaster, Chester, and Wilkes-Barre.
Those counties awarded alternatives to incarceration grants are:
Allegheny $1.55 million Treatment/Supervision Armstrong/Indiana $208,589 Casemanagement/Treatment/Supervision Berks $228,378 Treatment/Supervision Blair $216,120 Treatment/Supervision Centre $165,304 Treatment/Supervision Cumberland $198,797 Managed Care Treatment/Supervision Delaware $955,833 Evaluation/Treatment/Supervision Erie $318,531 Drug Court Offender Treatment Lehigh $1.02 million Treatment/Supervision Lycoming $199,800 Treatment/Supervision/Drug Court Montgomery $663,156 Treatment/Supervision Philadelphia $3.82 million Treatment/Supervision Schuykill $251,013 Treatment/Supervision Tioga $289,990 Treatment/Supervision Westmoreland $612,577 Offender Partial Day Treatment York $300,000 Day Reporting Probation Center