"Pennsylvania House Bill 2135"
Hello, today I want to cover a hot topic and that is payroll eligibility for lifers. As you may or may not have heard, but the U.S Supreme Court has ruled that life without the possibility of payroll for juvenile lifers has been ruled unconstitutional. Even Pope Francis voiced his opinion about this on his last visit here to the U.S. Right now there is a serious problem going on within the prison system.
There are countless men within the Pennsylvania system that have 25-60 years in on their life sentences. Some have been incarcerated since they were young as 15 years old, and others were as old as 25 when they were convicted. I will leave you the audience to do the math on the ages of some of these men. I personally know men between the ages of 55-91 years old who have changed their lives 20x's over.
To deem anyone as un rehabilitative is absolutely insane. Studies show that men 40 years and over regardless of their crimes usually are not responsible for new crimes once released. Therefore, it really is to costly for the taxpayers to keep paying to keep these old men incarcerated when they could be using that money to keep schools open or to build mentor programs for the "at risk youth."
Pennsylvania House Bill 2135 Is being pushed by State Representative Jason Dawkins please click on his stated below website link to view the bill, as well as other things in relation to this bill that if passed would or could give lifers a chance at payroll after serving fifteen years of their sentence. This Bill 2135 is currently pushed through the House Judiciary and there is also a push for a companion Bill for Senate Judiciary Committee. This bill needs support from the public at large and can be done by telephone, letter, Email Campaign, or a online petition.
Here is the information for Rep.Jason Dawkins(jdawkins@pahouse.net).
PA State Rep. Curt Sonney (www.repsonney.com)
Here is the information for Sen.Wagner(rmarsico@pahousegop.com)
Ask them to consider proposing a Companion Bill to H.B 2135.