Resolution 5A (DO5741)
Resolution 5A August 24, 2021 (D05741) The recent resolution submitted by Majority Leader Kim Ward, Resolution 5A August 24, 2021 (D05741), to exclude any incarcerated person who has more than 10 years left on the minimum sentence. This seems to be more of a mean-spirited resolution than one that addresses any problem. My understanding is that minimum sentences are not a set determination, because of good behavior, different programs, and acquittal on appeal. There is also an issue of having access to constituent services for the incarcerated and their families. We know enough about our human qualities that giving people in prison hope for a future is more likely to motivate a prisoner to turn themselves around, and that takes support of their representatives, families and our system of incarceration. Additionally, the gerrymandering of our Pennsylvania prison population is a misrepresentation of our democratic process. To count prisoners in the district that they are incarcerated increases the voting power of the voters in that district. We need to end this practice and count them in the district that was their last legal address before incarceration.