At the time when we arrived at the hospital, no, sir, he was not.
How many times before you got to see your brother did you contact the warden?
Every day -- sometimes two and three times a day, to make sure that we could get in to see him. The guards would give us a very hard time at the door and throw us out.
How many times did you have to contact the warden before you got to see your brother?
We contacted him three times the first day to get us in to see him.
Yes, we did, sir; we got to see him on the 17th. My mother got to see him on 62 2/28/02 PUB. SAFETY/HEALTH & HUM. SVCS. RES. 010598 the 17th; she was not aware of the situation until then.
Describe that to me. When you say "very poorly," what do you mean?
Well, when we would go to see my brother, the guards would be sitting very close to my brother's bed, eating chicken, eating french fries, laughing.
Very poorly. I mean, he was just -- he told us if we don't stop complaining that he was going to cut off our visitation altogether.
Right, that we could come see him like a regular prisoner, one hour every week or 63 2/28/02 PUB. SAFETY/HEALTH & HUM. SVCS. RES. 010598 whatever the regular visiting hours are at CFCF.
And to this day, you still have not received adequate information from them, right?
I understand that. Why isn't Thomas Costello here? 64 2/28/02 PUB. SAFETY/HEALTH & HUM. SVCS. RES. 010598
Well, let me -- let me put it this way. Why don't you come up, Mr. Grooms, a second. (Witness comes forward.)
I'm going to say this one time, one more time. Before, as chairman of this committee I take some action, we've been stonewalled in terms of information. I want all -- and I'm going to give you the timeline. I want all the reports that monitor, that review, that evaluate the performance of the PHS, all the reports. And that means all of the DePaul reports, all of them. If I don't get them, I want a written explanation from the City Solicitor, because then we will issue a subpoena for them. And when I request that an official of the 65 2/28/02 PUB. SAFETY/HEALTH & HUM. SVCS. RES. 010598 Administration is to be here, I want the person who makes the decisions to be here. So I will need -- I want to give you a 30-day period to submit to this Council the contract with PHS, all the reports evaluating the performance that have been done, all of the reports and evaluation that Dr. Robert Greiffinger has given, all of the reports of Dr. Patterson. And we will recess this hearing, and those reports are not to be in my office on the day of the hearing, because the staff has to be able to evaluate and go through them, and we have to have our own experts review those. And Mr. Costello is to be here. The budget period is not yet over either and he will be before this Council and I also will expect a written response as to why Mrs. Cannon's request and Mrs. Cannon's letters were not answered and a written explanation as to why a person, a family member that has someone that has been injured while incarcerated is given such a tough time and is not given the mere courtesies, pleasantries, and respectful treatment that any human being deserves. I want those in writing. 66 2/28/02 PUB. SAFETY/HEALTH & HUM. SVCS. RES. 010598 Okay? You got it all?
Good afternoon. I simply wanted to know if you had a chance to speak about the letter that we received this week and read into testimony.
I wanted to know if you spoke with our guest regarding the letter we received this week and shared it with the Prison Commissioner?
No, I have not, but we just had testimony from another family member that received the same sort of treatment that the family that wrote to you received.
Yes. Could we just hear for the record procedurally what 67 2/28/02 PUB. SAFETY/HEALTH & HUM. SVCS. RES. 010598 happens when families want to come visit their family members? Procedurally, what happens in terms of parking in the lot, walking from the lot to the designated spot? What happens at the desk, and all the steps that come with from the car to ultimately meeting with a family member?
And I'm pleased that you asked the question because I heard the letter read in City Council.
And to be perfectly candid with you, I was appalled at the treatment that that person received. That is not the prison's policy, that is not the practice.
And I assure you that I will be responding to that situation with the warden of the institution -- not only with the warden of the institution, but after the investigation is complete. And once we determine who those officers were that allegedly was rude to the gentleman, we 68 2/28/02 PUB. SAFETY/HEALTH & HUM. SVCS. RES. 010598 will take firm disciplinary action, I assure you of that. But, once again, I was appalled when I heard the letter. It's not something that I would allow, it's not something that we support, and certainly, I will be addressing those issues with the warden and the staff at Curran Fromhold.
With that said, we should put on the record that it was actually a seven-month-pregnant lady who --
Nine months' pregnant. So with that said, what is the SOP, standard operating procedure?
If I remember correctly the letter, she was getting someone out on bail. When you come up and get somebody out on bail, you go to the officer in the lobby; the officer in the lobby notifies someone from the record room, and they'll come out and receive the papers, identify themselves that they are here to get a person out on bail. The officer will then go back into the intake area of the receiving room, go through the 69 2/28/02 PUB. SAFETY/HEALTH & HUM. SVCS. RES. 010598 paperwork to make sure that it is proper. Then the officer in the record room will notify the center control; the center control will notify the housing area. And also at the same time, they will also see them off, which is the record room, and will also notify the housing area that a person's out on the bail. The inmate is notified that they have bail and to prepare themselves to be discharged. Sometimes they may take a shower, sometimes other activities are going on. The inmate gets his personal gear, goes to the officer on the housing unit.
The officer in the housing unit will check the inmate's arm band to make sure it's the right person, ask him a few questions on his (indiscernible) card, on his admission card, and then the inmate is then sent to the receiving room.
Once in the receiving room, he has the opportunity to change clothes. He gets all of his clothes, his personal clothes, changes 70 2/28/02 PUB. SAFETY/HEALTH & HUM. SVCS. RES. 010598 into his personal clothes. And then he goes out toward the center control area, where the person's arm band identification is check once again.
Once the identification is checked and verified, that person is discharged.
He goes to the lobby, meets his family, and they proceed from there to wherever they go -- in most cases, home.
And so given what you've outlined, assuming that all parties involved in that process were adequately notified pending the release of this individual, that process you just described could take how long? A half a day, eight hours? Help us out.
Councilwoman Blondell, let me just say this to you, it doesn't take five hours.
It should take -- and once again, bear with me because it depends on what time of the day it is.
Sure, sure. 71 2/28/02 PUB. SAFETY/HEALTH & HUM. SVCS. RES. 010598
If it's o'clock in the evening, it's going to take longer because the housing areas are locked down for count. And if I remember correctly, this case was at o'clock at 6 night, so they were doing count. Count is usually cleared within 45 or 50 minutes, barring no miscounts.
In this case, the worst-case scenario should be an hour and a half, no more than two.
We expect that response in writing from Mr. Costello. Now, so that we're very clear, I want contents of all reports completed by DePaul, 72 2/28/02 PUB. SAFETY/HEALTH & HUM. SVCS. RES. 010598 Dr. Greiffinger, and Dr. Patterson in a 30-day period.
This committee stands in recess until Wednesday, May 8th, at 1 o'clock in the afternoon. (Proceedings end at 2:36 p.m.) - - - 73 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia's meeting of the Joint Committees on Public Safety and Health & Human Services of Thursday, February 28, 2002, are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. RE: Resolution No. 010598 _______________________________, Josephine Cardillo Registered Professional Reporter and Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)