Just says $250,000 that the City is investing toward prisoner reentry efforts.
As I understand it, that money is a block grant that we got by way of MOCS. And we're going to be spending that on what we call our jobs project. It's going to be funding two -- continuation of two contracts with the Pennsylvania Prison Society and Impact services, to provide after care for inmates who have gone through our jobs training program, to assist them in gaining and retaining employment.
Are they 441 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 additional services?
No. The way that those started -- I was here yesterday when you asked about the Jackson_vs._Hendrick fund. They started out of that fund. It's not a re-occurring fund. So the plan was to get these programs up and running, to see if we could make an argument about maybe getting more City funding if we could show they were saving money. And this MOCS money allows to us continue it because the money in Jackson is only a one-time amount of money.
All right. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.
Thank you, Madam President. The follow-up question that was posed to your deputy last week, around the issue of using MOCS dollars for job treatment, job training, was why not... Or has there been consideration to approach 442 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 the Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation which has millions and millions of dollars for that particular service and thereby allows MOCS to free up those dollars and use them for... in some other way?
I know we've had preliminary discussions over the last year, and even before that, with the Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation. And we hadn't been successful as of yet, as I understand it, in working out any sort of arrangement with them. But Mr. Appel --
Hi. When I checked on what the answer was to that issue, PWDC funds, what's known as the must work program...
...when a woman who is eligible for TANIF goes beyond months, 4 that's when the requirement to work 20 5 hours a week is made to that -- to the 6 woman. 7 And that's what the PWDC money is 8 spent on, to pay the minimum wage for those 9 20 hours. But they do not pay for the 10 actual job training. 11
Okay. And as 12 you have described it, that would not be an 13 appropriate fit for those leaving? 14
That certainly 18 explains it. 19 Speak to me, if you will, 20 regarding... Well, first of all, 21 recognizing that the number of women 22 entering and leaving our prisons has gone 23 through the roof, what type of adjustments 24 have been made in programming, with regards to making sure when they leave they have a 444 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 place to go, some reconnect with their children. And I share that because I'm in discussions with the leadership of the Black Clergy. And there is concern about the disconnect that appears to be happening with the number of women who leave prisons, and really only have what's on their back when they stand on the corner on State Road to return to a normal life.
I just want to address the global picture about that, and let Mr. Appel and maybe Warden Gainey come up and talk about the other services that we have for women. We met as recently as two and a half weeks ago, maybe two weeks ago with Commissioner Martinez in Department of Human Services.
In an effort to bolster what we're calling the Reentry Oversight Board that we have at the prison. And the goal of that entity is to 445 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 bring together all the agencies, entities, and people in the City of Philadelphia who are interested in this issue of reentry because there are a lot of groups and folks who have absolutely no idea who the Philadelphia prisons are, who we have there, what programs we have already.
And we need to be supplemented in those things. So, we have this board that has met about four times. We have representatives from most of the interconnecting City departments, who I met with Commissioner Martinez to get someone from her shop on that group. And part of the conversation that we had was recognition of the fact that we have a lot of females in custody who are mothers. We actually have men in custody, as well, who are fathers.
Whose kids are, you know, in the custody of DHS or foster care, and 446 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 that part of the successful reentry and making it -- the chances less that they're going to come back to us, is making sure that they are, you know, they're reconnected with their families. And we need to start facilitating that inside the jails. So one of the things we talked about with Commissioner Martinez when we opened the new female facility, which we hope to open in the beginning of July, is actually stationing someone physically up on the prison campus from the Department of Human Services, most specifically, at the new women's facility, to sort of facilitate these issues of reunification and reentry before the folks leave the jails. And I'll let Deputy Commissioner Appel supplement that, about some of the programming. And if you would like, we can have Warden Gainey come up and talk about what we're doing at the new facility.
We have a number of 447 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 programs that are specifically aimed at the woman that we house, and the relationship between them and their children. We have three separate agencies, including DHS, that run parenting programs. We have a family therapy program. The 250,000 from the block grant...
...will be spent for two contractors that work specifically with women, one of them the People's Emergency Center.
Specializes with helping the homeless women and their children.
Which -- Which -- Which 448 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 provides non-traditional job training, mostly in the building trades.
We have programs from the Women's Resource Center, a Lutheran Family Services, a program called Kids and Kin which is run by the Philadelphia Society to Protect Children, a child care program. So, there are a number of things that we have just for the women, that are specifically aimed at improving the relationship between the women and their children. We know that that's a critical issue because the children of inmates are six times more likely to grow up and become inmates than children of non-inmates. And unless we make some change in that process, we're only creating or we are seeing the creation of the next generation of...
...of inmates. 449 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 And so, the parenting, especially those that look at child abuse and the child abuse prevention, are things that we work hard at.
I appreciate knowing that you have -- And I'm familiar with all of these programs; have visited a few of them. What kind of assurances, if any, exist so that women do not fall through the cracks? Because women are still falling through the cracks. How new is this -- are these partnerships? Is it a recent recognition of this reality? Which is a good thing. But if you could just speak to what kind of assurances we have in place that catch those few women that fall through the cracks. Because one woman is one woman too many who is trying to get back with her children.
Absolutely. The programs that we have for women have been expanding every year. It is a population 450 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 that groups in the community want to work with.
So, of the programs that I've spoken about, there are some that we've had for a number of years, some that are new. But the problem that we have is that there are so many programs that want to work with the women, that we have to find the room.
-- some of your questions until the second go-around?
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you, 451 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 Madam President. I wanted to thank our Commissioner not only for his patience, but as I said to him earlier, they have many important programs that are relevant to the needs in today's world in trying to help this population. Many of us accept the fact that people go back to the communities from whence they have come. And we've got to have people who are better prepared to be acclimated into the life of those communities. And we thank him for his realization of this, and his commitment to helping people enter into a return home from their prison stay. Thanks, Commish.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Ramos.
Thank you, Madam 452 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 Chair. And I want to also congratulate Commissioner Leon King for being our Prison Commissioner. I want to just ask you a few questions. I held some hearings on the reality of unemployment in Philadelphia in the Committee of Labor and Civil Service. And the Prison Society and others came to testify before that committee. Councilwoman Reed Miller had joined me in making sure that we got representation from the ex-offenders' community. And I was struck by data that was presented us, that something like 70,000 or more ex-offenders will be released within the next year in the State of Pennsylvania. And the big question around those hearings was this question: What is the community going to do with 70 some thousand ex-inmates coming back into society? And I thought it was appropriate because this was a hearing on the reality of unemployment. And that took us into a 453 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 couple hours of discussion and public testimony on the need for us to have more programs available, more jobs available to this huge inmate ex-offender population. Can you talk to us, Commissioner, a little bit more about what programs you have. You know, what else can we possibly do to get a percentage of that population back into the workforce, what kind of programs you have now, what other things are you looking for? I was mentioning that you were not getting anywhere with a proposal -- correct me if I'm wrong -- in the Workforce Development Corporation. And can you shed some light on the decision, please?
I'll say two things. One is an overall thing about what the community can do and what the City Council can do, you know. And one of the things I think we need to do is sort of change people's attitudes. If I go to the Philadelphia 454 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 Workforce Development Corp. or I go here and I go there, if I'm advocating for inmates, I usually get an attitude that I think I would like to change; otherwise, we're never going to get anywhere on this issue. And the attitude that I think I would like to change is, for those 78,000 or 80,000 folks that you said are coming out of State Department of Corrections, that's what happens to most of the inmates who are arrested and convicted. They go to the State DOC, they come to the Philadelphia prisons, and they're released back to the community. One of the schools I spoke at the other day, we had some mothers there whose kids had been killed and with guns and in gun violence in the City. And I got up and was talking about this. And one of the things that we need to change is, for most people who get arrested for gun crimes in the City, they don't end up killing people. 455 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 The ones that kill people, we get them; we put them in jail for life; we don't have to worry about them. But the rest of them, they get convicted. They go mostly to the State Department of Corrections. and they come back into the neighborhoods. And we know, from our correctional sort of experience, that one of the things that insures that these folks or helps them along to going back to a life of crime is lack of jobs and lack of housing. So people have to sort of change their attitude and say, you know, once you've gone through prison, you've gone through a program, you've indicated that you have a desire or a need to change, when they come back out we have to get people's attitudes changed so that they're willing to employ them. And that will sort of, hopefully, filter down into PWDC and places like that who just sort of wonder, why are you here asking for money for inmates? 456 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 Well, why am I here? Because we recognize the fact that recidivism and inmates going in and out of the jail costs us a lot of money, number one. But we're here today to talk about budgets and money. Two, it also makes the City an unsafe place because if you have the guy who's arrested, he goes to the State DOC for doing a begun crime; he comes back out; he doesn't get a job; and he goes that gun crime again, the person's who's the victim of that crime the second time is somebody who lives in the City. So it's essential that we start thinking about that, and changing people's attitudes. We have several programs, I would say, in the prison system that address this issue. The one that -- Two of them that I'd like to highlight is one called The Jobs Project, which is developed out of that money from the Jackson settlement fund. And it's a different sort of job program. And maybe Deputy Commissioner 457 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 Appel can go into the details. But it's a therapeutic community. So, in other words, these inmates are together on a housing area. They're not mixed with everybody else who has some different agenda. And they're given specific job training skills and counseling on how to do particular things in areas that we know are marketable in society. And so far we're only able to accommodate 200 inmates at a time. We're going to take it up to 400 inmates. And it's different than what we've been doing in the past because we actually contract with folks whose job it is to follow up with these folks, to make sure at the actually get a job. And it sort of floats back to Councilwoman Brown's question make sure about what are you doing to make sure women don't fall through the cracks.
With all these things now, we have companies that we're going to contract with, who have 458 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 performance measures and expectations from the City. It's not going to be a situation any more where we're just dumping money to people to do a job. We want to specifically outline what the job is, what we expect you to do. And if you're not doing it, then we'll get someone else to do the job. So that's one area that I'd like to highlight. We're also going to add to this perspective an element where we're actually instructing the inmates on how to become entrepreneurs. So it means that, you know, you don't have to just come to the jail and, you know, and take the jobs project and be whatever. We can actually give you some help on how to maybe walk the maze of City offices that you need to walk through to create your own business in the City. Or you know, understanding that process, and getting people from the community to help 459 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 us with that. We also have a new program that was also funded out of those Jackson funds, with Aramark Corporation, who provides our food service at the Philadelphia Prisons where we're training inmates in culinary arts and things of that nature, so they know how to do catering and cooking, and things like that. And we're also adding an entrepreneurial piece to that, aren't we, Deputy Commissioner Appel?
Yes. We are. So that's a place for them to, you know, stand up on their own two feet. And we have a lot of other things that inmates do in the jail, in regard to Phila-core and making stationery. I remember the story you told me about your stationery, and furniture and things of that nature. And we're looking at all of those things. And in the next two, three, four months we're going to be changing those 460 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 around so that we can have a more formal process of getting people employed from those programs. Those programs, a lot of inmates go through. And it's just sort of, you know, if we're lucky enough to hook you up. What I want is a formalized process so that they actually find employment when they're released. And as well, with this reentry oversight committee that I talked about, we're also soliciting people from the business community to be involved in that because, you know, especially with the budget situation that we have, the Prisons can't do it all. The City can't be expected to fund all of this. Businesses in this City make millions and millions of dollars from the people who live and work here. A lot of them get, you know, tax breaks and stadiums, and things of that nature. And I think that they certainly can contribute and help, when it comes to an 461 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 inmate who is discharged from prison. Not all of them. Just the ones that have gone through the programs and indicated a desire to change, and to form partnerships with the prison and the people that we have employed, to facilitate employment upon release.
You'll wait for your second go-around, Councilman
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Tasco.
I'm sorry. This question may have been asked. And if it has been, don't answer it.
About the professional services contact for health services, has someone asked that question?
Oh. Okay. It 462 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 has grown from $35 million to $45 million?
There's a lot of factors that have caused the growth of that. First of all, it's just the fact that health care costs generally just keep rising across the country. That's one reason. The second reason is, most recently our inmates are getting sicker, so that when they -- You know, when they come to jail, for example, this year our -- I think our dialysis patients were up 400 percent. Inmates who just are mentally ill or they have end stage AIDS or things of that nature, they're sicker. So when they come in and they're sicker, we can't necessarily keep them in the prison system. We have to transport them to a hospital where they need care. So that's the second reason. Another reason is because of increased premiums that we have to pay, 463 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 based on the way the contract is set up for the doctors that work for us, the malpractice insurance that we've had to pay. They're not City employees. So if you're a City employee where you're self insured, we don't have to worry about buying insurance. But the way the contracts are set up now, we have to buy the insurance for the doctors who work at the prison. And that's another reason that the health care costs have increased. Additionally, with just regular employees that work under the medical contract there, their salaries continue to rise, as well as the increases with drug costs. And if you forget what year the $38 million -- I don't know what year that was. But the inmate population has increased, too. So it hasn't been a static number. Those would be the broad-based things that I would say have caused the 464 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 costs of the medical contract to rise. Now, we did just issue a new RFP on April 2nd for medical services. And we've indicated to everybody there that the goal is to be creative. You know, we've had the same company up at the prison, prison health services, I think since 1983. And there's a whole host of reasons why I think it was a good... Good decisions were made, given the circumstances at the time, to keep them that long. But now we've issued an RFP. We've told people costs are an issue, but we've also told them to be creative. And we have a little more time, because in the past it's always been sort of hurry up, we got to get the new contract. We don't have as much time as we want, but we have more time than we normally have. So, we're pretty proud of the fact that we're going to have actually five people who are going to bid on the contract which is more than we had I think 465 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 the last two times we put this contract out to bid. And we're going to let them be creative. We're not going to say, come in here PHS, you do the health care. Or come in here PCOM, you do the health care. So, if you want to bid on it, you can partner with anybody you want; come up with any sort of configuration of services and partnerships, to get us the best medical services that we can for the cheapest amount of money. We're also, you know, reserving our right to play with it when the bid comes in. So I'm not saying that we're going to reduce the costs, you know, down to $20 million. But certainly the goal is to, you know, save as much money as possible. And we also have a lot of new management. You heard about the accreditation, and a lot of new management systems that we put in place in the last 15 months, to catch some of this. And I have to say, for the last 466 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 fiscal year, it was really a lot of the catastrophic events. And I just want to use this example I'll bet will stick in your head. You remember the gentleman who got shot over at the Criminal Justice Center because he was trying to catch that Judge? Well, that's one of the reasons medical costs go up. People don't think about this. After he got shot, you know, the police took him -- the sheriffs took him where they have to go.
And then two days later they call us up and they say, Philadelphia Prisons, this is your inmate; come get him. So we go down. We send two officers to have to watch this person on overtime. And then we have to pay the bill. So the man was... I forgot what hospital he was at. He's now transferred to Moss Rehabilitation Center. We have to pay the bill for that. So when you hear about catastrophic 467 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 events that happen to inmates, those types of things, the law requires us to pay the medical bills. So we've had -- In the last year, at least, we've had a lot of sick people. And we have to pay for them.
Thank you, Councilwoman. Commissioner, you said something about being self-insured or self-insurance.
And I was distracted for the moment. Do you mind repeating that? Because we're going to be facing an issue of self-insurance.
Well, part of the reason that the medical contract costs so much is because the doctors... I think it's just the doctors, and if it's more, someone can correct me. But the medical folks have have to be insured. If they were City employees, like me 468 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 and you, that wouldn't be an issue because the City is self-insured. If someone sued them, we'd just pay out of the indemnities from the Law Department. That's how it works. But since they're not City employees, we have to -- they're contracted to PHS. We pay for their insurance premiums.
And how many doctors do we have at the present time?
I'm not sure. Miss Kazinsky, how many doctors we have? 21, she believes, but she would have to check.
They are contractors with Prison Health Services. That's part of the thing we thought about maybe, that maybe if we could contract with these lawyers directly -- I mean, with the doctors directly, would the City's self-insurance cover them? 469 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 And I think the answer that I got back would be no. We have have to make them City employees, so we wouldn't have to pay that money.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a couple questions about the reentry program and also the summit, the reentry summit, I think you call it?
I'd be interested in getting more information on the summit. And as Chair of Council's Committee on Public Safety, I'm particularly interested in this issue and would like to be involved in the summit. With the consultant that you hired to assess the impact of the various inmate programs, what has been the results of that study?
I believe you're talking about Dr. Rosenstein? 470 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04
Well, I don't know. The name is not mentioned in your testimony.
Yes. That's Dr. Rosenstein. And the main thing that you can put your fingers and hands on that comes out of that is the jobs project that I talked about earlier. He's the driving force behind that.
And, you know, he got it all together and set it all up, and continues to be the driving force behind exploring that. That's the main thing that he has done. And helped us reconfigure some of the stuff for the JEVS Program, and other things, to funnel it into jobs.
How successful has the Pennsylvania Prison Society and Impact Services been on helping inmates get employed? 471 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04
Well, so far that's very, very... We just signed those contracts with them. We've just come up with performance measures to measure them by. And it's really too early right now for us to provide any information. But I can assure you that that's what we're going to be expecting from them in the future.
All right. And so, when each prisoner comes in now, each prisoner has a projected outcome?
Each prisoner has... Someone actually counsels or sits and evaluates each prisoner and writes up some type of plan.
That's not the way it works necessarily. With the jobs project, I'll let Deputy Commissioner Appel explain how those 472 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 inmates are selected for that. But not every inmate that comes through isn't there necessarily long enough for us to do a plan. But I'll let the Deputy Commissioner explain how they're selected for jobs. And I would also let the Councilwoman know that as part of the preparation for the reentry summit, we're reevaluating everything that we do. I'm trying to even alter the intake process, because usually when you come to prison or jail, and we ask you about your medical condition and, you know, your emergency addresses, and all that sort of stuff. But Deputy Commissioner Appel and the treatment folks are developing something, so that we get information about your job history and things of that nature, so that we can actually direct you in a better way than we do now, in regard to reentry. So I'll let the Deputy Commissioner talk about how people are 473 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 selected for jobs.
Okay. But just let me tell you that every admission does get an initial interview with one of the treatment employees, at which time they look at any emergency problems. They look at the need for drug treatment, for academic help for job training. But since most of the inmates that we hold are pre-trial, and they are in and out very quickly, we put most of the treatment efforts on to the inmates that are there for a particular sentence. And that's who we target for most of our rehab and reentry programs because we know approximately how long they will be in, and that's who we're really charged with helping.
Okay. All right. Well, what is your population? And how many of those people have been sentenced, have been county sentenced?
We have, I think as of today, 7788 inmates. Generally speaking, 474 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 55 to 60 percent of those people are pre-trial.
I know that you're going to do some community outreach because, you know, it's the neighbors, it's the neighborhoods, and the people that do need to have an understanding that we have to figure out a way to transition, you know, the inmates back into neighborhoods. And I notice, too, that you talk about... I know my time is up, Council President, but I'll just ask this one last question. You indicate that you want to develop a community coalition in a targeted neighborhood, to assist inmates in their reentry to the community. And I don't want to ask you what neighborhood has been targeted.
That's part of the -- We 475 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 have a group from Washington that we've contracted for, to do a study on prisoner reentry in Philadelphia, to let us know sort of fresh information about barriers that are faced by inmates. I think they're actually up here next week or the week after, interviewing three or four hundred inmates. And when we've gone through the process of them collecting their data, then we're going to have something called the community round table which is different from the reentry summit, where we pick a neighborhood in the City. And I'm not even -- we haven't even started talking about what neighborhood that will be. And that's one specific thing. But we're also -- We've also created a community outreach office in the prison which is a new thing, where we're going to be -- separate from that -- going out into the community and sort of spreading the word about what we do, how we do it, and 476 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 the moral support mostly, that we need from the community, when inmates who have gone through our programs come back into the neighborhood. So a lot of these folks that you see here behind me, even Deputy Commissioner Murphy, are going to be out in the neighborhoods talking to folks.
Thank you very much. Commissioner, you mention in your testimony that you are projecting a stable inmate population in FY '05. Why is your regular overtime requirements so high $18.4 million, which equals 18 percent of your total Class 100 request.
Well, I would say this: I think, as I recall -- and Mr. Semansky will correct me if I'm wrong -- in the budget documents, the overtime has basically been the same, '03... '02, '03, '04, around $18 million. 477 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04
I think you were cut in FY '05. But if we're spending $18.4 million in overtime, would it be cheaper to simply hire more guards? I'm sure -- Is this for guards, for the most part?
Yes. And the problem -- The basic reason -- One of the basic reasons is, you know, the prison population has climbed over the years, but the -- the -- you know, the authorized staffing levels have not. So when the population rises, there's certain things we have to do. So we have to fill it with overtime. So the vacancy rate is one of the big things that causes us to use overtime. And the vacancy rate, combined with, you know, leave time that we have to grant employees. So what we've done is, we've been talking amongst ourselves in the prison system about a program to hire another 180 correctional officers.
What would 478 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 that cost?
I believe the estimate we have is, like, $100,000; is that correct? $90,000. Excuse me. So the question will be, then, it's not our decision. We'll have to talk with Mr. Dubow and the budget folks, so they can tell us whether it would, in fact, be cheaper to hire those people and bring them on or continue to fill the position with overtime.
And you know, that's the issue generally with overtime. And there are a lot of things that -- You know, if -- We have a pretty elaborate system at the jail, in regard to overtime and how we deploy people and whatnot.
Because, 479 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 as I said, $18.4 million in overtime is such --
Again, it's just like with the hospital costs. There are a lot of things that are unexpected that we have to staff for. So, for example, the guy who got shot and his spinal cord is severed, you know, the two CO's that have to watch him three shifts at Moss Rehab, that's not in the staffing plan. Those are things that happen that we're not funded for. We don't -- We can't plan to have, you know, CO's standing around.
So you have actually two guards at the hospital. Is that what you're saying?
I believe Deputy Commissioner Murphy pulled one, since the man is paralyzed. But generally speaking, based on union rules and things of that nature, there are two correctional officers watching these people. 480 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04
So that means those who are assigned at the prison would undoubtedly have to work overtime to cover for the officers that are at the hospital.
So we either -- And I mean, the way -- the choice is, you cover the service. Two officers are pulled from the jail. They're at -- They're at Moss Rehab Center. We have to fill the positions they were working on overtime. Or we stop the activity that those two officers would have been conducting at the jail.
Well, I personally think you're going to do an excellent job. I really do. And I think it behooves you to certainly check with Mr. Dubow about whether it would be much more efficient, much more economical to be hiring more guards than paying all of this money in overtime. My God; what does one individual 481 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 make in overtime a year?
Well, we had our most notorious -- Not notorious; I wouldn't use that word -- our most famous person at the prison system in the Daily News a few years ago who made -- a few weeks ago who made, I think, a hundred -- He almost made as much as I did, in overtime.
A hundred thousand something. But that's just an indication of the fact -- That correctional officer, no one forced him to work overtime. There's just a lot of work to be done.
You know, I remember years ago at a public hearing that was implied that the guards really had really quite a game going. If Mr. Ramos and I were partners, and we were working on the same shift, I would say to him: Listen, you take off tomorrow, and I'll work the overtime. Is that what goes on today? 482 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04
That was happening. And I think, as I said, I just think $18 million is an awful lot. What is the growth in your inmate population that you are projecting? And just let us know how you will be able to reduce your budget for inmate clothing by $50,000.
Okay. Mr. Semansky is going to address the inmate clothing. And the first part of the question in regard to the population, a lot of -- our population projections are... It's very important to consider the reentry programs and the things that we're going to initiate, because the way we're going to keep our budget down and contain prison costs is to get rid of inmates. I mean, that's the core long-term goal of the prison system, is to reduce the population.
How are you reducing the budget for clothing by 483 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 $50,000 in FY '05?
Madam Chair, we have the Prisons Industries Program. They manufacture clothing. We're going to try to increase the production of that clothing, rather than purchase -- outsourcing the inmate clothing. We're buying bulk material, which is cheaper than buying a manufactured product, and using inmate labor to produce the garment.
In the industries program? That's been in existence for as long as I've been in the prisons, for at least 25, 30 years, at least.
Okay. The Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown. 484 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04
Madam President, I have some questions while she's on the telephone.
One is, Commissioner, on Pages 3, 4 and 5 of your testimony, you speak of enhancing inmate discharge programs to reduce inmate recidivism. I know the JEVS Program and your system has a well thought-out perspective arbor program that would work well with some of the vacant lot stabilization efforts that we are doing here with NTI. I believe the Horticulture Society has been speaking with you or perhaps your staff about this. Could you provide an update about what is happening with this potential program?
Deputy commissioner Appel can give us an update on the horticultural society.
Yes, I can. We have had a number of meetings. That is absolutely 485 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 so. Those have resulted in a grant proposal that has been submitted to the state which would result in a reopening of our Greenhouse Program where we would be growing fruits and vegetables which would then be turned over to Philabundance which would then go to needy homes. And it's a three-year grant, and we have every hope that it will be granted.
Thank you. Again, the Chair recognizes Councilwoman Brown.
Thank you for that. My -- I hate to say final because the responses of you and your colleagues may prompt another question. Tell me about the rules regarding inmates and voting. What are the restrictions, if any, and what do we do to promote voter registration?
Well, as I understand it, 486 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 there are no restrictions on inmates voting in the Philadelphia prisons. And as I recall, we have a gentleman that comes up to the jails to do that, Mr. Leotis Jones. Is that his name?
Yes. And he comes up on primaries and the elections. And he goes around and registers inmates to vote. And I believe they vote by absentee ballot.
Okay. Tell us about Core Star and the integrated strategic approach that's happened with regards to problem solving. Can you share with us the outcome to date.
Yes. Core Star is something that we started at the prison system back in January. And what it is, it's modeled after Comstat in the Police Department. 487 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 And what it tries to do is... First of all, we meet on a monthly basis. And the goal there is to focus on issues that are important to the prison system, number one, and eventually develop a set of performance standards, where every month we emphasize these particular standards. The philosophy is that what doesn't get measured doesn't get done. So part of -- What we've been very good at the prisons is doing things. We keep a lot of records. But what we thought we needed to get better at is actually putting them in a systematic format and using our information system in a more effective manner to measure those things. So we meet on a monthly basis. And institutions, wardens are required to present their progress in areas that we have outlined. Right now it's really in its infancy stage, meaning that I wanted -- I wanted this fancy software package, and I wanted 488 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 this and that and the other to start it. And, you know, there was just more work to be done. And I wasn't getting everything. So I said, we need to start meeting and give this process a name. So we've met four times. The wardens were given specific areas to come up to look at goals for the year. So, for example, budget is one of them. So, budget, overtime. We're going to give them two or three months to be creative on their own with -- in regard to the budget and overtime, and ways that they're going to reduce that. Professionalism within the institutions. Focusing on education at Pennypack School, and increasing participation in that. Professionalism and professional development amongst the staff, the supervisors in the system.
Raising morale in the 489 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 system. They're all coming -- They've all come up with plans for these things. There's four or five more -- other categories there.
But essentially it's an approach for systemic change...
That's always welcomed and encouraged. I received a letter from attorney Mark Mendel which speaks to the performance bond and bid bond associated with the health services contract.
He speaks to how the City could save as much as $500,000 by removing these barriers. Could you speak to that?
I'm going to have Miss Cosinsky speak to the specifics of it, but I'm acquainted with Mr. Mendel. I believe he represents PCOM, who is 490 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 one of the folks that are actually presenting a bid on the health care contract. And we're very encouraged by the fact that an entity like PCOM would be bidding on the contract.
And I know that the performance bond was an issue for them. And I believe that we said that they could ask for a waiver. But why don't you...
Yes. I'm Roseann Cosinsky. I'm Director of Contract Compliance and Administration for the prisons. And shortly before this testimony, I spoke with Sheryl Critz, who is our Deputy 491 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 City Solicitor for the Prisons. And she assured me that what we are doing is, we were exploring alternative ways for providers to present this bond. It may be in the form of property. It may be in the form of reduction. But we would be developing a plan, submitting that plan to the Director of Finance. And it is at the discretion of the Director of Finance to approve or disapprove any changes in the performance bond request. So we are cognizant of this fact and are taking appropriate action.
On the third page of the performance measures, it appears as if the number of inmates receiving vocational training has been halved from the FY 2001 figure. FY 2001, it was 1900 plus, and 932 is projected for FY '05. Can you speak to the decrease, actually 50 percent decrease.
I'll let Deputy Commissioner Appel comment on that. 492 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04
Prior to our looking at the creation of the jobs project and the reentry process, the job training programs that we had were mostly three to four weeks in length. We were looking at quantity. We were trying to get as many inmates in and through as we were able.
-- the Jackson consent decree. We'd get held in contempt if we didn't have, you know, 900 inmates in the slot.
So that was one of the benefits of not being under the consent decree, is we could plan a little better.
But when we looked at what level of training the marketplace required, we realized that we had to extend the weeks of job training, so that now the training programs that we have run from 60 to 90 days. 493 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04
So we've gone from looking at quantity to looking at quality. And we think in the long haul, that will allow the inmates to be better able to find work upon release which will help us in our long-term efforts to hold the inmate population at a manageable size.
Thank you for your response. My final observation about programs period, are they are good, they are necessary, but they mean nothing if there's no coordination amongst the programs. A link or thread that ties them all together so that no one falls through the cracks... You have a number of solid programs that you shared with us, including the JEVS and the arbor, and that's all very, very good. But it means nothing if women and men are falling through the cracks. Their... not purpose, but the strength of those programs and the effectiveness of 494 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 those programs become questionable when inmates are falling through the cracks. So, I would ask and hope, as we go down this road, and you're looking to open up a new facility for women and men, that they do not fall through the cracks when they leave these doors.
I agree with you, Councilwoman. And again, we're looking at all the programs, to gear them specifically toward reentry and rehabilitation. And we're even working on a specific written policy. Deputy Commissioner Hammond is working on this, a reentry policy --
-- that will also help us, you know, coordinate and make sure that we're not duplicating our efforts and missing people. Because when we duplicate efforts and missing people, not only are we not doing our job as effectively as we can but we're wasting money.
For sure. 495 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 Please introduce the gentleman to your right.
Okay. Thank you very much for your testimony, gentlemen. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilman Ramos.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Concerning the... Again, following up on the issues of jobs, my colleague Wilson Goode has presented a bill in this Council for consideration which I'm a co-sponsor of, that would give tax credits to businesses that would hire ex-offenders. I think that this is an area that we need to continue to work hard on. How does this rate in your priorities as Prison Commissioner?
Well, jobs... I think 496 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 that's probably more important -- Well, in my mind I think about that more; I'll put it that way, than I do housing and some other things, when it comes to people reentering society, especially with some of the handicaps that exist there in society for inmates, again, who are trying to, you know, make their way right in life. So, I welcome ideas like that, where we give businesses an incentive to hire an ex-inmate, an offender who's gone through one of our programs. And it goes a long way with adding to things that, like what Senator Kitchen and Representative Oliver did with some of the laws that we had in Harrisburg that, you know, forbade student loans and things of that nature to ex-offenders. So, you know, when you're released, you want to go to school. They won't give you a loan because you're an ex-offender. So I would say if we were going to talk about priorities upon reentry, just the way I think about it, I think dealing 497 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 with your drug addiction and your... that plays a big part in your criminal behavior. Jobs, I think, would be second, and then housing. I don't know if that's the politically correct professional way to put it, but what's the way I think about it in my head.
I just want to again offer my services. As -- You know, as some of my colleagues now know that my tenure here, regardless of how long it will be, I want to let the public know that I'm here to help the people of Philadelphia get jobs, job training. Workforce development is very... is a key part of economic development in any City. And we're working very hard here in this Council to make both things, you know, part of one objective, and that is to train and make jobs available to our people. I just want to touch for a few minutes on the issue of health care. I was... I heard you somewhere say that reorganizing health care was one of your -- 498 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 one of your priorities. But someone told me a story, I believe it was last year, that you had an inmate -- I believe it was a woman -- who was an end-stage AIDS patient. And end-stage, I believe -- correct me if I'm wrong -- this is a person who's AIDS is very advanced; and, you know, it's a very tough time for them. And this person was in prison. And while the person was in prison, you had to provide health care for this person. And I hear that -- and correct me if I'm wrong. Well, I was only told the story that the prison system spent close to a million dollars in providing health care for this lady who went there, who went to your prison system. And she died there. So it cost almost a million dollars to take care of her. And it was probably something very righteous to do. However, how many of these cases do you have? And can we come up with another 499 Whole - Operating Budget - 4/20/04 way of, you know, housing someone that is that sick, instead of putting them in our prison population, probably at a much lower cost, and also being able to be, you know, a help to this person?
There was a lady who had end-stage AIDS. And I know she was in the hospital, and she cost us a lot of money. I'd ask Roseann maybe to come up and whisper in my ear if she knows how much it was. I know it was a large amount.