Pa. prison population ticks up, still down from 2011

he inmate population in Pennsylvania’s prisons edged up slightly last year after dropping the previous year.

A Department of Corrections official tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the one-year increase of 328 inmates or 0.6 percent is largely due to a 15 percent increase in the number of parole violators returning to the system.

Bret Bucklen, director of the office of planning, research & statistics, says it also stems from elimination of a program that allowed prisoners to live in the community before being paroled.

The prison population had declined by 454 inmates in 2012, so the total at the end of last year is still smaller than the total in December 2011.

The Corbett administration called it “the smallest increase for the 24 years preceding this administration.”