My name is Marybeth Marzulli, and I live 8340 Walker Street. Approximately two years ago, I was in my breakfast room looking out of the deck and I saw a head running by the deck. I went outside and there was a young black man in his underwear running through my yard, ran onto my barn, and I said, "What are you doing?" And he said, "They're chasing me." He jumped on top of my barn, jumped over the fence and disappeared. Shortly thereafter, I had police cars come down the street. I happen to live a private street and my yard ends in Pennypack Park itself. And the police came and they searched, they were after one of the trustees who walked away 62 COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 980215 and discarded his orange jumpsuit so he would not be quite as obvious. Approximately one year ago when I was out feeding my horses, I saw a man jogging down the bike path, and you know how sometimes you just discern that there's something wrong there. And this man looked like he was running from something. He had navy work pants, a light blue work shirt, and he was running and then he'd slow down to catch his breath, and he started running really fast again, and he'd slow down to catch his breath, run again. He had a little arm bracelet on that looked like you had been admitted to the hospital emergency room or something and had just come home, and he left. And I told my son, I said, "You mark my word, this is another prison escape." Fifteen minutes later we heard the alarm, and 15 minutes after that I saw one correction officer walking down the bike path. I stopped him and said, "Are you by any chance looking for a prisoner?" And he said yes. I said, "Well, you missed him, he's gone, he left about 30 minutes ago, probably on the bus to Frankford Avenue." I'm very concerned by the attitude that 63 COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 980215 the Northeast Holmesburg area needs another prison. And so when I got notice of the town meeting, I was very glad to see that other people were as upset as I was. I went to the town meeting, had the opportunity to express my views and what occurred in my house which was published in the Daily News. And then Commissioner Costello graciously offered for the community to go on prison tour, which I gradually accepted. At the end of that tour as we were speaking with the Commissioner, he was talking to some of the members of the community and stated that -- was very irate at the fact that the Daily News had been at the meeting without his knowledge. My contention is if you have nothing to hide, what does it matter what news media is present? (Applause.)
He also stated that he was very concerned that they reported unfounded statements, and not knowing who I was, he proceeded to tell the community people there that the statements that I had made at the town meeting were unfounded and not true. Needless to say, I was very irate that my integrity was questioned. I had 64 COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 980215 witnesses to both incidents. And unfortunately for Holmesburg, walkaways are common. You know, I am concerned at the attitude is they have been deemed psychologically not dangerous to our community, and I think all of us know psychologists who are probably dangerous to our community that have allowed murderers, rapists, you name it, to be released. I don't want prisoners in my yard. (Applause.)
I'm also concerned with the fact that the park is very quick access to both prisons, and that park is filled with, not just young children, but older adults, people walking thinking that they should have the freedom in their community to take a nice walk in the park. The park is a direct access that a lot of these prisoners go down the bike path, into the woods, straight to Frankford Avenue in order to get away from the prisons. My concern also is the fact that about three years ago whenever there was an escape, I used to see a lot of police, and I have had police on my street and in my barn all hours of the night before looking for escaped prisoners. I don't see the 65 COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 980215 police anymore. I see one correction officer. I think that it's time that Council and the Mayor realize that our community has a right to be safe. And I think before they make any plans for any other prisons they need to make sure that our community --
Well, that's one of the reasons that we're here and that's one of reasons that the Infield and Holmesburg have been holding their meetings, and that's why we're here. Hopefully, when the Commissioner meets with Jeanette and MaryEllen something will -- more communication lines will be open. We are running late. Councilman DiCicco has to leave here very shortly. So I would like to all people. Yes, sir.
My name is Fred Moore, 4103 Stanwood Street in Holmesburg. My concern is the transportation, transporting these prisoners on State Road. Heaven forbid that the old Holmesburg ever opens up again and now they'll have to be transported on Torresdale. Why can't a road be built behind the prison? There's plenty of property back there. I 66 COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 980215 know it's going to cost money. We got to come up with it. A road built behind the prison for transport within the facilities.
Well, there are people from the Administration here, and hopefully some of those questions can be answered. Mr. Martz, did you hear that?
My name is Peg Bisirri, B-i-s-i-r-r-i. I live at 4600 Emerson Street. My husband and I operate a greenhouse business. What I'm very concerned about is we have greenhouses, and these prisoners that get out, we never know for sure if they jump the fence and get in our property. Also we were not aware -- I was not aware that they had stopped and made a silent alarm. That at least forewarned us. Every time I heard the alarm, I could go outside, warn my husband to make sure that at least he would come in the house to be safe. After all, he's 74 years old, and I do want him to be protected.
Thank you very 67 COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 980215 much.
My name is Margaret Kett. I live 4633 Wilbrock Street, and I just have one quick point to make. I think it would be very interesting to have a comparison of the log from the calls that the prison supposedly made to 911 and the district compared with the log of the calls actually received. I have on more than one occasion come from home from work between 7:30 and 8:00 in the morning and found out from KYW that there was a prison escape the day before. (Applause.)
I had been awake and in the yard and did not hear an alarm. I really think it might be to the Council's best interest to compare the logs to make sure that these calls are actually being made.
Good afternoon. My name is Ed Jackson, I live at 8053 Irving Street. 68 COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 980215 My concern is the position that the prison system has in designating a prisoner as a trustee. Something needs to be done in that respect to do a better evaluation in regard to this particular individual becoming a trustee. He's there because he has violated his rights as a citizen -- (Applause.)
-- to start with. And he's going to use every advantage to get to that position of a trustee in order to escape from that facility. And if he's using all his ability and all his conniving expertise to gain that position, at the first opportunity he's going make a break. And this is putting the community, himself, and the whole City in jeopardy. You said now he can do this by threats to the staff, he could do this by intimidation and do this by monetary passing. And this is being done in order for him to gain that status. And until something is done in that respect, I suggest that every prisoner in there ought to be under maximum security at all times. (Applause.)
Ruby Adams, 8332 69 COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 980215 Torresdale Avenue. I wanted to more or less ask Mr. Costello about this silent alarm. Is that supposed to be like a dog whistle? Do I have to watch my dog? Do I get an antenna? How do we know? And also I'd like to know whether or not within the last six weeks was there an escape from the cannery? They either went out the kitchen window or the bathroom window and no alarm went off. (Applause.)
Just a moment. We're wrap it up with you, Commissioner.
Pressi's (ph) Bar there, he also said there was an escape and everything there, and I've heard it and I'm not going to give my source out that there was an escape, but not one alarm went off. And I think even if they're at the cannery, no matter what they did, if they walk out a window, they go out any window, if he didn't give them permission to leave, that's an escape. We should know. (Applause.)
All right. Bob. 70 COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 980215
Good afternoon, Joan. I'll try to be brief. My name is Robert Smith. I'm at 8017 Walker Street. Coming down here today, I was explaining to my daughter the purpose of this meeting, and on the way down she a wanted to know if she could speak. And I thought a lot of what goes on affect the children of the community, so if Council doesn't mind I'd like her to say a few words first.
My name is Marissa Smith. When I hear the prison siren go off, I get scared and lock the doors because it's scary because when the prisoners break out they go through Pennypack Park which is behind our backyard. In the last prison escape, we couldn't go outside in school and we had to stay inside. If you decide to make Holmesburg Prison a prison again, think about the safety of the people in their neighborhood. They will be very scared. So give the Holmesburg Prison to the community so we can make a recreational center or something good for the community. (Applause.)
Very good, very 71 COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 980215 good.
A few comments and points. I'm really concerned because our civic association gets calls from prison guards leaving messages on our machine, because we don't always answer, saying different problems that are going down the prison. These guards need a way to be able to vent what's not being handled properly, whatever rules are not being done. There has to be a way that they can do this without worrying about being penalized for it because the guards seem to get the blame no matter what happens down at the prison. Generally when things aren't working right, they change the manager, not the team. The gentleman said that the vehicles when they leave now prisoners are to have a vehicle following the bus. I always thought that was procedures that before that just wasn't followed. That may or may not be correct, I don't know but from what I understood, that was supposed to happen all along. It's just getting to a point now where we have a fire house right around the corner and we seem to hear the prison siren more than we hear the 72 COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 980215 fire siren. I grew up in Tacony and Holmesburg all my life, and for all these years, maybe 35 years, I only heard rarely someone escaping from the prisons. Now, this last two years we have 12. By putting more prisons in our neighborhood, it just gives us more of a chance to have more of these problems in our community, makes it more of an unsafe neighborhood for us. We were concerned when current Fromhold was built. Now there's talk of more prisons being built. We want no more prisons in Holmesburg. There was a meeting held in March, and as far as I'm concerned, to me, it was a dog and pony show. There was a bus brought up and people put in shackles and told how things were going to work and we had a lot of promises of a lot of things people asked for, and the Commissioner promised that we could look into a lot of things. I hear today we can look into a lot of these things. I don't know how many things we're looking into are actually being addressed. (Applause.)
Promises don't cut it. We 73 COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 980215 need some results.
I want specifics. Specifics when you meet with the Commissioner.
I'm glad Councilman DiCicco mentioned that. I thought that was a great idea.
Thank you, Bob. Commissioner, just for one moment please. Is there anything you have to say?
Thank you, Councilwoman. I would just like to say that I listened to everyone here today, and I will certainly meet with the community and address any of the concerns that they have. I have always been available to meet with them. I'm sorry that one of the neighbors feel that the meeting was a dog and pony show. To me, it was an opportunity to educate the community on how we transport prisoners and why this happened and what we're doing to prevent it in the future. And I will continue to do that. I will continue to do whatever I can to communicate with the community and to 74 COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 980215 educate them on prison procedures, and I hope that it will be helpful to us.
It's only two people, Commissioner, that you have to meet with, Holmesburg and Infield. It's not like you're meeting every day in the week or you're communicating and you have to pick up the phone every day of the week. You have two people that they can go back and tell their people exactly what's going on. Is that fair enough?
They don't want promises. They want action. I want action. (Applause.)
So what I'm going to do, I will stay in touch with the Public Safety Committee here, Councilman Rizzo, Councilman DiCicco, and others, and they are very, very interested as well as I am to know what transpires. 75 COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 980215 That is that right, Councilman.
Absolutely. I know that the facility is within Councilwoman Krajewski's district, but if there's anything I can lend aside from my role in this Committee, I'd be more than glad to help in any way I can. Again, I really think that just by the fact that you establish an agenda, a time for meetings specific, a date certain, I think that will go a long way in at least getting that information out. Again, we may not have all the answers to the questions and it may not be satisfactory to everyone, but going forward, I think we can avoid some of the anxiety that is out there because I hear a lot of anxiety out there. It's justified, there's no question about it. (Applause.)
Thank you very much. I want to thank all of you for taking time out to spend a couple hours down here at City Council. Mary and Jeanette, I'll be in touch with you. 76 COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY - RES. 980215 Thank you all very much. That ends the resolution on Public Safety. - - - (Adjourned at 2:45 p.m.) - - - 77 C E R T F I C A T I O N I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia of June 16, 1998, were reported fully and accurately by me, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. RE: COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY ___________________________ Lisa C. Bradley, RPR and Notary Public