tag | parole

The Attorney General’s office says Jimmie Cortelyou, 41, changed the way Northumberland County counted and deposited house arrest funds in the attempt to pad his personal account.

An internal review of Pennsylvania’s parole system is, in theory, acknowledging a long-standing complaint of parole agents over a long-term policy shift designed to help more parolees succeed on the outside.

For more than 40 years, life sentences in Pennsylvania have only come one way: without the possibility of parole.

If someone takes part in a crime—say, a robbery—in which someone dies, they can be handed a life sentence even if they didn’t kill anyone. And Pennsylvania locks people up for life at a higher rate than any other state.

A string of homicides allegedly committed by five Pennsylvania men following their release from prison prompted an investigation by the state’s corrections department last month. The five parolees were charged with committing a total of six homicides over a two-month period, the Associated Press reported.