State money brings back the buses that take families to distant prisons
A $600,000 line in this year's state budget restarted the Pennsylvania Prison Society's bus service, which had shrunk after the pandemic. Lawmakers marked the expansion in Philadelphia on Monday.
State lawmakers and the Pennsylvania Prison Society said Monday that a bus service taking families to visit relatives in state prisons is running again and growing, City & State Pennsylvania reported. The service runs on $600,000 from the state budget lawmakers passed in July.
Many of Pennsylvania's 23 state prisons are hundreds of miles from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. For families without a car or the money for a long trip, the bus can be the only practical way to visit.
How it works
The Prison Society and Wesley Family Services have run the trips for nearly two decades, but funding and visits stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to City & State. The program has resumed trips to nine state prisons and added 18 new trips since the budget passed, and plans to add three or four prisons each quarter until it reaches all 23, said Kirstin Cornnell, the society's chief program director. A round trip costs $20, and riders under 18 travel free.
The Inquirer reported in July that the $600,000 would let the program return to a full schedule for the first time since before the pandemic, as reposted by the Prison Society. In a July update, the society thanked the General Assembly and Gov. Josh Shapiro for the money.
What lawmakers said
House Appropriations Committee Chair Jordan Harris, a Philadelphia Democrat, noted that "prisons are not necessarily placed in the epicenter of our population," City & State reported. Rep. Andre Carroll, a Philadelphia Democrat, spoke about his father's 20 years in prison and the distance that once limited their contact. Rep. Ben Waxman, also a Philadelphia Democrat, argued that people who stay connected to their families do better after release.
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What the records add
It's a budget line, not a law. The money was part of the 2026-27 state budget, which lawmakers passed and Shapiro signed on July 12, about 12 days after the June 30 deadline, according to City & State's budget tracker. Because it's a single year's appropriation rather than a program written into law, the bus service will depend on lawmakers including it again in next year's budget, which is due June 30, 2027.
Who was in the room. Harris, as Appropriations chair, leads the House committee that writes the spending plan. Carroll sits on the House Judiciary Committee, where he voted in April to advance both bills to repeal the death penalty. Waxman is a co-sponsor of both of those bills, including House Bill 99. Our article today on the death penalty has those votes.
What happens next
Work on the 2027-28 budget begins early next year with the governor's proposal, followed by negotiations between the House and Senate, both of which will have new members after Nov. 3. Families who want to ride can contact the Pennsylvania Prison Society for schedules.