Mich., Va. to receive Pa. prisoners

2,000 Pennsylvania prisoners are being shipped out of state as part of an effort to ease prison overcrowding.

2,000 Pennsylvania prisoners are being shipped out of state as part of an effort to ease prison overcrowding.

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[audio: 091221tmprison.mp3]

2,000 prisoners are being shipped to Michigan and Virginia as part of of the effort to reduce the population in Pennsylvania’s state prisons. Susan McNaughton is a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. She says the contract will cost 45 million dollars a year.

McNaughton: For individuals who will be transferred, the criteria is they will have very few visits from family or friends, they will have no mental health issues or problems, and they will have at least three years left on their sentence.

McNaughton says some inmates have even requested transfers as part of the program, which will be implemented no later than February. She says the state has four new prisons under construction to assist in the overcrowding and prison officials hope to have the prisoners back in Pennsylvania within three years.