Fewer people might be kept on probation or in county jails under legislation signed by Gov. Josh Shapiro on Dec. 14.

A new law, passed by the state House and Senate with bipartisan majorities, is intended to limit the length of probation and prevent people from being sent back to jail for minor violations in a state with one of the highest rates of residents who are incarcerated or under court-ordered supervision.

The law aims to limit the length of probation and prevent people from being sent back to jail for minor violations.

Shapiro called the probation-reform bill “landmark” legislation that “will create more fairness in Pennsylvania’s criminal justice system, ensure probation serves as a tool to help Pennsylvanians reenter their communities and paves the way for more Pennsylvanians to get second chances.”

Under the measure, judges must tailor probation terms to individual circumstances, such as employment and child care responsibilities. It establishes a “presumption against total confinement,” which advocates argue directs judges to avoid reincarcerating someone for minor violations of probation terms.

The bill also prohibits courts from extending someone’s probation for not paying fines or court costs if they are found to be unable to afford it.

Pennsylvania has the nation’s second highest percentage of its population on probation or parole at 2.8%, according to the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics.

On any given day there are more than 7,400 people in prison for probation or parole violations at an annual cost to the state of $334 million, according to the Council of State Governments Justice Center.

The legislation dovetails with a nationwide reconsideration of the criminal justice system to help people leaving incarceration resume their lives and find jobs more easily.

But the new law drew criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union, which says the law doesn’t fix the problems that plague Pennsylvania’s probation system and will do little to reduce the number of people under supervision.

Judges can continue to “stack” probation sentences and impose probation after incarceration, the ACLU said. The bill also fails to provide an automatic or efficient way to end probation early, it said.

Issues with Pennsylvania’s probation laws received national attention in 2017 after a Philadelphia judge sentenced rapper Meek Mill to years in prison for violating the terms of a probationary sentence he had received a decade earlier. In January, then-Gov. Tom Wolf pardoned Mill.

Mill spent nearly 10 years on probation — including stints in jail for technical violations — before a court overturned his conviction in a drug and gun case in Philadelphia. His case helped shine a light on the state's probation system.

We hope those on probation realize the new law gives them a better opportunity for a second chance and that they will stay out of trouble so they won’t be added to the list of the roughly 73,000 people who are behind bars in the state and cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

— JGG