Committee Hearing, October 31, 2006

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, October 31, 2006 10:10 a.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN B. TASCO, CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER, CO-CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL COUNCILMAN JUAN RAMOS COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN RESOLUTION 060711 - Resolution authorizing the Council Committee on Public Health and Human Services to hold hearings regarding the inmate overcrowding and security problems at the Philadelphia Prison System. - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2

Good morning. I'd like to call the Council Committee on Public Health and Human Services to order and state that I'm the Chair of the Committee, and you see these chairs, the Councilmembers will float in, but this is not a bill. It is a public discussion, so we will open the hearing and begin the discussion. I'd like to have the Clerk read the resolution, please.

Resolution 060711, authorizing the Council Committee on Public Health and Human Services to hold hearings regarding the inmate overcrowding and security problems at the Philadelphia Prison System.

Thank you very much. I have a statement I'd like to read prior to calling our first panel to the table. Police officer, public servant. Firefighter, public servant. Corrections 3 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 officer, public servant. Too often when we think of our City's public servants who protect our public safety, we think of police officers and firefighters, but not correction officers. When issues arise that place our police and firefighters at risk, we often do not hesitate to ensure their safety, and rightfully so. In this context, we must do the same for our City's correction officers. Over the past few years, our City's prison population has exploded from over 7,000 to close to 9,000 in just three years. Like any other public servant who protects our public safety, we need to ensure that correction officers have a safe work environment. As recently reported in the Philadelphia Tribune, allegations have been made that the Prison System has problems with security lapses and inaccurate head counts, which led to an inmate escaping from the House of 4 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Corrections and a rape suspect being missing for approximately hours. 4 These security issues and the 5 overcrowding problem have created an 6 environment where inmate crime, violence 7 and riots are more likely to occur and 8 have produced an unsafe and severely 9 stressful workplace for City employees in 10 our Prison System. In addition, this 11 environment has led to renewed litigation 12 against the City regarding possible 13 violations of the constitutional rights 14 of inmates. 15 Considering this information, 16 the purpose of this hearing today is to 17 discuss and address the overcrowding 18 problem in our Prison System. Through 19 this dialogue, I hope that we will raise 20 awareness regarding the safety and 21 security concern in this City workplace 22 and identify ideas and suggestions to 23 improve and address this problem and move 24 the City in a corrective course of action. 5 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 We thank you for coming, all of those who are here. Those of you who have not signed up to testify, if you would do so over at this table, we will add you to the witness list. We hope that this will be, and we believe it will be, a productive discussion about what's happening at the prisons, and we do want solutions in addition to you raising your concerns. You may have anecdotal stories you want to share, but please, let's try and offer how we can make the system better, how can we do something about it. Because we can all complain, but the real dialogue has to be what can be done. So to that end, let us begin with our first panel, which will be Leon King, Esquire, the Prison Commissioner; Pedro Ramos, Esquire, the Managing Director; and Alan Butkovitz, the City Controller, if he's here. If not, Mr. King and Mr. Ramos, come forward.

Good morning, Madam Chairwoman. 6 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711

Good morning.

My name is Pedro Ramos, Managing Director for the City of Philadelphia, accompanied by Commissioner Leon King of the Philadelphia Prison System. Also available with us today is the City Solicitor, who chairs the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee and has spearheaded an effort that we'll refer to later as a 24-point plan that's involved the various criminal justice partners. I'll testify my prepared remarks and followed by the Commissioner and then open discussion.

Sure. Do you have copies of your remarks? Have you turned them in? You did not.

I do not know how or when they were transmitted. I'll check on that.

Okay.

They're brief. 7 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711

Okay. Why don't you make your testimony and then we'll make copies.

Okay. Thanks. Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the Public Health and Human Services Committee. Thank you for inviting me here today to testify about the City's Prison System. I know that the system has been in the news lately and I appreciate the opportunity to emphasize this Administration's commitment to a safe and secure environment for the staff who work at the prisons and the inmates who reside there. It is indisputable that the population of the Philadelphia Prison System has increased over time at varying rates. 2 percent average increase in the in-house population at the Philadelphia Prison System, when you compare each month to the same period of the prior year and then average the increases. 8 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Consistent with prior years, the average increase for the overall census has been a little bit over four percent. Since April of this year, though, the overall census increased by just under four percent. Our in-house population increased over eight percent. This was caused primarily by the unusual seasonal uptick, as well as the loss of contracted beds in Delaware County. We lost 350 beds earlier in the year in Delaware County. As in prior years, we're now beginning to see a seasonal downturn in the population. In response to these increases, the Prison Commissioner has continued, with the support of the Administration, to ensure that our system can safely house all those detained on State Road. Since 2003, correctional officer staffing has increased by 16 percent, and from 2002 to 2006, the Prison's budget increased by more than percent. 25 Complicating the management of 9 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 the prison population, we were informed at the end of calendar 2005 that Delaware County would not be renewing our contract for bed space in their facility. Using a housing consultant, we were able to reduce the Delaware County beds in phases, coupled with an extensive effort by the Public Defender's Office to review all cases and recommend release alternatives where appropriate. The Commissioner took steps to add bed wherever possible throughout the system while ensuring that there was adequate staff either through hires or through the utilization of overtime to ensure staff and inmate safety. He's been supported by the Capital Program Office and the Department of Public Property in its efforts. We also turned our attention to finding outside housing. Approximately 100 inmates are now housed in a Monmouth County, New Jersey facility, with the potential for another 100 next year. 10 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 We're continuing discussions with another facility in New Jersey as well. In June, the Prisons advertised for housing opportunities, and we expect this process to yield 200 additional beds by next spring. In addition, the Commissioner will continue to identify other outside spaces. My office recently hired a former Divisional Deputy City Solicitor, Milton Velez, to oversee our Criminal Justice Population Management Unit in the Managing Director's Office. Mr. Velez has worked in the state court system, the Law Department's Civil Rights Unit and was a participant in the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee during his tenure in the Law Department. In addition to managing the special release hearings and programs, he will also focus on reaching out to different system partners, not just CJCC members, to explore the development of alternatives to incarceration. 11 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 While criminal defendants are housed with the Philadelphia Prison System, their incarceration results from the actions and activities of numerous partners within the criminal justice system. Police officers arrest and detain defendants. The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office charges and prosecutes the criminals. The Defender's Association represents many, if not most, criminal defendants.

Judges and staff of the First Judicial District schedule hearings, set bail, conduct jury and non-jury trials. As a result, each of those partners, to a greater or lesser extent, affects the size and makeup of the prison population. For several years, these partners and other related agency representatives have met as the Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission, the CJCC. This Commission convenes to discuss and address significant issues and concerns of importance to the 12 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 criminal justice system. With the leadership of the City Solicitor, the group's activities have focused on finding systemic solutions to the growing prison population. Along with the Philadelphia Prison System, the CJCC has undertaken specific initiatives and programs to improve system efficiencies and case management through increased staffing and improved scheduling, as well as assessment of case flow. A subset of the larger group meets regularly to recommend process improvements. Over a year ago, the City retained the services of the Criminal Justice Institute at Temple University to compile empirical data to help understand the growth in prison population. The interim reports from the Temple team have helped the CJCC develop and implement policy changes geared towards broad-based, long-term solutions to the challenges that face the criminal justice 13 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 system. The City will soon receive a final report from the Criminal Justice Institute at Temple University and has already begun addressing the demographics of the prison population and the mechanics of case flow. The CJCC remains committed to developing strategies to target various segments of the population and add to the development of improved processing techniques. Though we continue to seek additional space, we know we cannot increase prison beds indefinitely. That is why the work of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission, supported by academic research, is so important to ensure that we have a system that operates efficiently and ensures that appropriate options are available. We continue to closely monitor the situation on State Road. The safety of the staff and inmates of the City's Prison System is critically important and we will ensure that it's not compromised. 14 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Through the efforts of the CJCC, the criminal justice system partners will continue their efforts to manage an effective and efficient system that safely provides for all those who come before it. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you. I now ask Commissioner King to present his written testimony. COMMISSIONER KING: Good morning, Councilwoman Tasco. As you know, my name is Leon King. I'm the Commissioner of the Philadelphia Prison Systems.

Excuse me a moment, please. Let me recognize Councilman Ramos, who has joined us, Juan Ramos. COMMISSIONER KING: Thank you for providing me the opportunity to testify on this important issue. In recent months, the Philadelphia Prison System has 15 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 successfully managed and processed record numbers of inmates. While we are taking very proactive steps to reduce the stress on the system, the Prison alone cannot control the number of people who are sent to jail, we cannot decide how long they will stay in our custody, and we cannot choose to release or determine the manner of their release. Meanwhile, the various agencies that do play a role in these matters are not under any single person's authority. The solution to this problem requires a comprehensive City-wide effort to study the issue of crime in a way that addresses each layer in the Philadelphia criminal justice system. Just as the police can't arrest their way out of the crime problem, the Prison can't build its way out of the population problem. It should be stated up front that building an additional facility or facilities would not only reduce resources from what independent research 16 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 shows are other more promising crime-prevention efforts, it would also distract our intention and energy away from other more effective crime-reducing measures in Philadelphia. We should not look to the prison, the last stop in the criminal justice system, for solutions, or even the police, for that matter. We should look for solutions in the community, the City's social and physical infrastructure, in the schools, in the economic and labor institutions, in sentencing reform, all while offering families the support they need to remain in stable and happy environments where criminal activity is never tolerated and criminal values are never introduced. Newspapers that focus on the prisons write about mere symptoms and they do not focus on societal problems that form the basis of the crime problem. They contribute to finger pointing and don't see the problem for what it is. It is of some note to consider 17 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 some trends in Philadelphia over the last years. S. 5 percent, 8 37,000 people. In 1993, the population 9 of Philadelphia was greater than the 10 population -- the Philadelphia Prisons 11 was greater than the population in 2006, 12 yet the prison population for each of 13 those years was 4,500 in 1993 and up over 14 8,900 in 2006. The increase in prison 15 population is not explained by any increase in population. There was no 17 such increase in the City. There was a decrease. Also, there has not been an epidemic 100 percent increase in crime in Philadelphia since 1993. In fact, between 1995 and 2005, the FBI's Uniform Crime Report for Philadelphia showed a drop from 108,000 to 82,000 major criminal acts annually. Therefore, the 18 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 increase in prison population was not the result of an increase in crime. Crime too decreased. S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs crime-reduction funding, consistent with what Philadelphia experienced. This is further evidence that the solution to crime does not reside in the prison but in comprehensive crime-reduction efforts. Research on mass incarceration has been linked to increased crime over the long term. This occurs because when other sectors of the criminal justice system are not addressed, the conditions in our communities will be ripe for individuals to commit crimes. It is of serious consequence that the more people we arrest, in the long run, the worse the crime situation will become. This seems counterintuitive, but when other crime prevention and social support mechanisms 19 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 aren't focused on, people will invariably commit crime.

This leads to a criminal record, but with this criminal record, it becomes more difficult to find a job upon release from jail, and jobs and employment have been shown to be perhaps the single most promising crime prevention tactic. A second consequence is that while in jail, inmates learn about new criminal opportunities through a network of other criminals. The end result is that with inmates returning to a community that does not have the right foundation to prevent crime through other social mechanisms, we will see a steady increase in the prison population. These are not theories. These are real-life conditions measured in Philadelphia, New York, Texas and Illinois, to name a few. The bottom line is that if we have more beds, we'll just fill them and in two weeks, we'll be in the same place we were before we had extra beds. This 20 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 has been confirmed by criminological research and has been the experience in Philadelphia and other communities across the country. For example, since 2004, we have increased capacity at the Philadelphia Prisons by 1,251 beds. I would say almost a little less than half -- I'm ad-libbing here a little bit -- a little less than half of those were just since the spring. This increase in beds has helped place inmates in a bed sooner, but did not solve any problems in the long run. Detainees kept coming. Nevertheless, an all too familiar effect has happened, we have mitigated the efforts right now, but have not solved the City's long-term crime problems. Through all of the proactive steps the Prison has taken, and including adding more beds, we have addressed some symptoms of the problem, but not the actual problem. It is clear that to improve the 21 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 quality of life for citizens, prevention of crime in the first place -- and I'm going to add here, and providing support to ex-offenders upon release is both socially and economically more advantageous. Since building a new prison is not a viable solution, the City has taken proactive steps to work with the resources we currently have. Along with our criminal justice partners, the City has initiated a 24-point plan to help mitigate the effect of the stressed system. With regard to the recent litigation and claims from Mr. Rudovsky that the conditions at the PPS are unconstitutional, the PPS flatly rejects such claims as categorically incorrect. In Fiscal Year '07, the Prison successfully processed 33,962 inmates at a cost in excess of $2 million.

You want to go back and correct those figures. 22 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 You want to say in 2006 and you want to say $200 million. COMMISSIONER KING: Okay.

Don't you? Why don't you do that again, so the record will be correct. COMMISSIONER KING: With regard to the recent prison population?

With regard to the recent litigation, that sentence. COMMISSIONER KING: With regard to the recent litigation and claims from Mr. Rudovsky that the conditions at the PPS are unconstitutional, the PPS flatly rejects such claims as categorically incorrect. In Fiscal Year '06, the Prison successfully processed 33,962 inmates at a cost in excess of $200 million. Did I get it right that time?

Yes. COMMISSIONER KING: Good. Under my direction, the Prison 23 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 System has taken several bold measures to move forward as a professional correctional centered institution. The Prison seeks to reform through evidence-based programs and policies. We have also initiated a performance measurement unit called CORESTAR that continually monitors things such as restricted movement, overtime expenditures, use of force, assaults and a number of other measures. These measures have been managed effectively and there have been no statistically significant increases that would act as an alarm for unsafe prison operations. The Prison also has several treatment programs and is currently examining the effectiveness of those programs. We aim to have promising programs expanded while programs that don't work we will seek to reform. The Prison System has also increased staff by 16 percent since I took the position as Prison Commissioner. 24 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Before I arrived in the PPS in November of 2002, there were 1,525 correctional officers on duty. As of October 2006, we have 1,767 correctional officers. In July 2006, we had a recruitment drive. A test was administered in September of '06, and we are beginning the process of hiring and training new classes of correctional officers. We have a huge applicant pool, but we can only accept a fraction of those who apply due to the secure environment we operate. Safety and security are our principal concerns and we are forced to accept a narrow margin of those who apply when they meet our rigorous criteria. This is compounded with a regular turnover that our system experiences. This makes the situation challenging. I lost a page. This compounded with a regular turnover that our system experiences makes the situation challenging. Our correctional officer training curriculum 25 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 has been reformed so that our staff is better trained to handle a wider variety of conditions at the prison. In addition to hiring more staff and taking more progressive reforms to the training curriculum, the length of training has increased from weeks to weeks and 9 then again from 11 to 12 weeks. The 10 overall effect has been a larger, more 11 professionally trained correctional staff, perhaps the best Philadelphia has ever had. Two incidents were mentioned in the resolution that brings us here today. These disturbing incidents occurred at a result of several staff members not following policy. Both of these matters are open investigations by the Office of Professional Compliance. I would like to assure the members of this Committee that the Prison maintains a safe and secure environment for both staff and inmates, and that while we have many challenges, we 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 continue to work on improving our conditions. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Let me just ask you a couple of questions. Let me recognize Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, a member of this Committee, and Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown. How many correctional officers are in the Philadelphia Prison System? COMMISSIONER KING: 1,767.

Of this number and excluding people who are on IOD, FMLA, family leave, I imagine, detailed to other areas and so forth, how many officers are providing security in our prisons on a daily basis? COMMISSIONER KING: I couldn't give you that answer off the top of my head. I'd have to get back to you on it.

Okay. Considering the number of officers that 27 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 leave the Prison System and that the prison population has gone from over 7,000 in 2003 to almost 9,000 today, what steps are being done to ensure the safety of officers and prisoners by having enough officers to secure prisons? COMMISSIONER KING: Well, right now at the 1,767 as we've testified, that's more officers than we've ever had before. I mean, we are at the Philadelphia Prisons -- the population has increased and the number of correctional officers working there have increased. Not always in step, but as you look at it over time, the number of officers have increased. There's a whole host of things that go on. That's a real broad question that you gave me in regard to what we do. Some of the things that we've done is make sure that we're tracking what's going on. For example, in the summertime when we were having issues with restricted movement and people being 28 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 locked in their cells too long and that became an issue, we opened the overtime spigot, as it were, and began to spend more money on that problem. We issued officers pepper spray probably three years ago to help them with dealing with unruly inmates, and we've seen a decrease in the number of use-of-force incidents, a decrease in the number of officers that are injured and going to the comp clinic, a decrease in the number of inmates who are sent to the hospital as a result of injuries, and there's a whole host of other things that if you'd like me to continue to go on, but the most important thing -- and recruiting and things of that nature, but the most important thing that we need to do is reduce the prison population. Again, probably come by the end of the year, we'll have increased the number of correctional officers above the 1,647. We have 32, I believe, that are ready to start the Training Academy in a 29 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 couple of weeks. We have approval for another 60 that will be starting the Training Academy shortly thereafter, and I anticipate we're going to be continuing to do that. I mean, we continually hire, for the most part, every two weeks. Every ten weeks or weeks now, we 10 graduate a class of correctional staff. 11 The Managing Director assisted us in June 12 when he authorized 150 extra CO's that we hired between April and July. So we're continually hiring. We're continually monitoring what's going on. That's my short answer.

Well, going back to the earlier statement I made about the number of correctional officers who are on duty at their shift -- they work in shifts, right? COMMISSIONER KING: Yes.

I don't know how many are required per shift, but if you have officers who sometimes maybe 30 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 get sick at the last minute, don't show up, somebody is out injured on duty and you have somebody who is out on family leave or some other reason, that does affect your shift, the number of officers working on that shift, right? How do you -- COMMISSIONER KING: Let me --

How do you fill in? Suppose you need officers 12 and ten show up. What happens? 13 COMMISSIONER KING: That's 14 factored into what we call our Post Plan. 15 We have a Post Plan. A post is a station 16 that an officer works in a particular 17 facility, and there's a plan for each 18 jail. There's a plan for the entire 19 system. And when we calculate how many 20 officers we need, we take it into account. There's a formula that we use to take into account how many people will be out sick, how many are going to be on FMLA. So that's taken into account in the number of officers that we hire and 31 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 plan that we need to use at the prisons. That's taken into account.

So you're saying during a course of a shift, you would still end up with the required complement that you need? COMMISSIONER KING: Sometimes, you know, you may have a shift and even though we take that into account, there may be times when not every post in the jail will be open. That happens despite the fact that we take it into account. And when we do that, we have to compensate and close a post or move people around.

And, Councilwoman, I guess I would also add that in terms of the strategy for managing staff at the prisons, I would make the distinction from the strategy that we had discussion about in Council before with respect to the police, and I wouldn't want the strategies to sort of be merged, because in the case of the police, there is 32 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 robust discussion in Council between Council and the Administration about increased staffing versus overtime. With respect to the prisons, as I've testified before in the context of the police budget, with respect to the prisons, we're not seeking to avoid hiring by using overtime. I mean, our strategy is not that. Our strategy is staffing, because we hear the Commissioner and the staff at the prisons that the overtime is an additional stress to the system and the real need is the increased staffing. There's a fair amount of turnover, as you know. So it is -- it's not a case where we're trying to avoid staffing up by using overtime. We support the staffing up and reduction of overtime in this case. COMMISSIONER KING: And part of the challenge that we're facing now, there was an old correctional officer list that expired, I don't know, two 33 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 months ago, and I talked about the recruiting drive. We've not been able to recruit from that list yet, but I know we're working with the Personnel Department to get the list certified so we can start processing people from that list. That's the glitch right now that's holding up the extra 60 that I talked about.

It's a new list? COMMISSIONER KING: Yes.

So how long does the Personnel Department keep a list at least active? COMMISSIONER KING: I think it's two years.

Two years? COMMISSIONER KING: Yeah, but the prior list usually -- now we have this new procedure where you pay to get on the -- to take the test, or whatever it is you do. So we didn't get as many people on the list. And then the 34 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 people -- I don't know. There were a lot of people who just weren't qualified. So we went through the list very, very quickly this last time around. Usually it would last two years. This time it didn't. So we had to go out and recruit again, so now we're at --

Well, if you had people on the old list and you said it expired, what happens to those people who were on the list? COMMISSIONER KING: We've exhausted that list.

Oh, you exhausted the list at that point? COMMISSIONER KING: Yes.

So what you want to do now is keep the list moving and revolving and not have a time space prior to a test, the recruiting and testing -- COMMISSIONER KING: Correct.

-- and qualifying employees? So you want to 35 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 have a list so if you need somebody, you can go to that list? COMMISSIONER KING: Correct. And as I said, people don't realize at the prisons the training time was ten weeks. Now it's weeks. We're 8 graduating officers every 12 weeks. It's 9 not a situation where it's whenever we 10 feel like it or we think there's a need, 11 we recruit. Every 12 weeks we graduate a 12 class.

Mr. Ramos, you talked about this in your testimony, a committee that discusses prison overcrowding, and I notice in Mr. King's testimony he talked about in his first paragraph that we need to have a -- the solution to this problem requires a comprehensive City-wide effort to study the issue of crime in a way that addresses each layer in the criminal justice system. In an overall comprehensive way to address the whole prison overcrowding, 36 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 is this something that the committee does that you talked about?

Yes, ma'am. You'll never hear the Commissioner or I speak of the prison population management without noting how small a portion of the overall system we have responsibility for, as you know. While we have two of the departments sort of within the City Administration part of the government, the police and prisons, we are part of a system, as you know, that involves the courts, probation, parole, public defenders, the district attorneys, bail commissioners. And there's a federal model that relates also to our eligibility for certain federal funds that provides for what's called a Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission, which essentially recognizes that you have this kind of fragmentation of responsibility in the criminal justice system and provides a forum for the various parties to that system to get 37 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 together, work together even though there's no one sort of in charge of the whole thing. The City Solicitor chairs the CJCC. A large part of the partners around the table are the courts, and he's the natural person to interact with the courts and the District Attorney and the other lawyer-intensive agencies that we're dealing with. And as these issues have sort of converged, including the increase -- our dependence on contracted prison spaces, our City Solicitor, Romy Diaz, I think, has taken an extraordinary leadership role with all of those various partners.

Can I just stop you for a minute? Could you just answer for me, what have they come up with to address this issue, all the people who are involved? What are they doing?

In the last nine months, about nine months to a year, the 38 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission has moved from a lot of discussion and updating and information-sharing to actually developing a 24-point plan, and that 24-point plan revolves around what each party to the system can do to better understand the prison population and to better manage the flow of persons in and out of the prisons. For example, we've worked together on implementing out-of-county and out-of-system placement. We've worked together to contract out prison spaces. That's been mostly a City function, but it's been done in coordination with the partners. We've had a request from the Public Defender's Office through that system for increased support beyond their budgeted amounts. They demonstrated that with, I think it was, three additional staff, they could help accelerate the number of people that would leave the prisons if the paperwork and process had just worked a little 39 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 faster on their part. So we supported them having additional staff in the Public Defender's Office dedicated to getting those people that would be out of jail anyway but for the process to get through that process faster. We commissioned a report as a committee to look at the entire population that's in jail and to really understand the demographics of that population. What percentage of that population is there just because they failed to meet low bail, for example, looking what the implications are for sentencing guidelines, looking at what practices are happening at the bail commissioner level, are we following the bail guidelines there. And that report -- there's a report that has been submitted as draft for comment to the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee by a Temple University professor named Dr. Goldkamp, and they're in the process of finalizing that report. But that's a 40 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 big part of this because it has everybody around the table, including the courts and the various --

They came up with solutions to these issues?

Well, I think --

Or they just talked about what could happen?

Well, I think that there are some things that are being acted on now as a result of the work that's going on, so it hasn't really awaited the final resolution. For example, in September 11th, the First Judicial District implemented what they called the Accelerated Disposition Program where they staffed up in the Sheriff's Office. They started the hearings earlier. They did a number of things to gear up the court process where they could accelerate trials or have early dispositions. I mentioned more sheriffs. They added some court personnel. 41 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 So there's some things that, as we've come across them, they've been implemented, like the Public Defender's recommendation and the courts accelerated disposition process. We've approved additional monitoring bracelets during the process. One of the things that's noteworthy about the report, I think, in the end will be how the population has changed from the last time such a report was done. For example, at one point there was a fair number of people who were in jail solely because they failed to meet a relatively low bail. That population has changed a lot. We thought that that population would be much bigger than it is. It turns out that for a lot of that population, those individuals have multiple holds on them. So it's not as straightforward as it used to be, that you're just in jail because you failed to come up with a thousand dollars. So we're learning. I think 42 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 it's been eye opening for all the criminal justice partners to go through that. I'm sure at the appropriate time in the maturation of that report, it's something that the Commission would share and discuss with City Council.

Let me just hold off here for a moment. We have all the lights on of the Councilmembers and I know you told me you have a meeting and they may have questions for you, so let me call on Councilwoman Miller. I don't remember whose light was on first.

I just have a follow-up question to Pedro's recent remarks. I did have a question about the data from Temple and how it was either going to help or not help and what would actually come out of this that would be solutions. I want to understand how the data ties into prison overcrowding. For example, using the example you just used, for someone that 43 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 could not make low bail, what would it mean? The data that we've collected, what would it mean to someone that can't make low bail that helps increase the prison population? Would that mean going through all the units that you talk about in the criminal justice system that perhaps the bail commissioners or someone would do something with bail? COMMISSIONER KING: I just want to take a little bit of that and then hand it off to the Solicitor and the Managing Director, but when you're asking these questions and you're thinking about the prison, you have to remember a couple things. One, we're not really a prison, we're a jail. So that means 60 percent of our folks are there because they can't make bail, either it's too high intentionally, it's too low, whatever. The reason that the prisons are crowded is, again, not because crime is up, but because the length of stay is longer. I think it used to be 70 or 80 44 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 days was the average length of stay. Now it's up to 90, 92 days. And what that tells us is that the processing time from the time of arrest until final disposition has increased for various reasons. The Managing Director mentioned the combination of holds. Ten years ago when we did the study, you would get arrested, for example, on a burglary charge. For example, you go to the Bail Commission, they say, Here's your bail, you pay the bail and you're gone. Now you come and you have a burglary arrest and you also have five failure to appears for the other five times you were arrested. So now instead of going before one judge to have everything to be taken care of, you got to go before five judges. So that takes up the time in which you're processed, which means you stay longer, which means the prison population grows. With the bail question that you 45 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 had, if you've got that one low bail, there are a lot of things that we're talking about, and I guess I'd let the Solicitor decide which of the specific points he'd like to get into that would try and shorten up the process for that person who has the multiple holds, so that maybe we have one judge looking at all those things so we can get people out. And there are a lot of process issues in that report. And I'm probably the most impatient person when it comes to the 15 points and everything else, because I 16 have to -- I'm responsible for all the 17 people at the prison, and I have to say 18 that I think we all should be pretty 19 proud of the fact, this is probably the 20 first time that the City on its own, 21 without the courts trying to force us to 22 do anything, got together a year ago and 23 said, We got to make some decisions not 24 based on guesses or educated hunches, we need somebody to come in here who studied 46 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 the system before, tell us what the demographics are and then we can begin to moving to do solutions. So it's really something we all should be pretty proud of. And I'm going to stop, but that's my short answer.

Councilwoman, could I ask the Solicitor to supplement the Commissioner's response? The Solicitor chairs the Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission.

Sure.

Good morning. Romulo L. , City Solicitor. If I might follow up on the Commissioner's points, I chaired the first meeting as City Solicitor of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee in May of 2005, and what was clear to me at the time was that there had been a lot of discussion about what was the root cause of the population growth, what was different in terms of the demographics of the population than we had seen 47 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 previously, but we had no empirical data that really gave us a basis for trying to understand what the challenge was that needed a solution or solutions. And at that time, we began to entertain a discussion about what kind of a population study was needed. Ultimately, over the summer of 2005, we in the CJCC made a decision that we thought it was appropriate to have that demographic study, that population study, conducted by Professor John Goldkamp of Temple University. That was the first time in something like 12 years that a demographic study had been done of the Philadelphia prison population. But what also became clear to me at the time -- and I emphasized, and I think other members of the CJCC supported me on it -- was that we really didn't have the luxury of coming up with solely an academic analysis of the population. We wanted some fixes. We wanted some solutions. We wanted some practical 48 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 approaches that reflected the diversity of views on the CJCC. I've often characterized the criminal justice system akin to a water balloon. When you push in at one point on the balloon, it bulges out at another end of that balloon. And that's very similar to what we see today. If we have, for example, increased arrests for offenses or new offenses or new initiatives, we're going to see an impact not only on the courts but also in connection with the prison population as well. One of the factors in particular that we thought was worth keeping mindful of was that of a prison population that has fluctuated in the neighborhood recently around 8,600 to almost 8,900, what we see is that about 5,000 people in that population, which reflects male adults, female adults and juveniles, but when you look at that total population, about 5,000 are 49 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 awaiting trial, which is why we've been looking to develop practical solutions, including the element that was mentioned by the Managing Director a moment ago in connection with the accelerated disposition of those individuals awaiting trial. The First Judicial District has assigned two new trial judges to accelerate that disposition. In the first couple of weeks -- and this was very limited data for an initiative that began September 11 of this year -- we saw the increase in dispositions go up by about 35 percent. Again, that was a limited sampling, first couple of weeks, but that initiative appears to be working. We also have an experienced trial judge, a supervising trial judge, who is handling the more complex cases with an eye toward developing models on how these more complex cases should be tried so that we can also accelerate the 50 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 disposition. That is just one type of initiative that we have underway, which began approximately in June of this year, even while the Goldkamp study was being developed. The CJCC and I believe that we really needed to work in parallel fashion to develop some practical solutions. That was the origin of the so-called 24-point plan. We've also been looking, for example, as part of the 24-point plan at how we might aggregate sentences where there is a minimum requirement for having the persons who are sentenced in Philadelphia County to meet the minimal requirements for being housed in a state penitentiary for their prison sentence.

And so what we've been doing all along since early June is trying to develop in parallel fashion the practical tools that ultimately became the 24-point plan, which was adopted following a couple months of development, adopted at 51 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 a special meeting on August 2nd chaired by Mayor John Street, because it really reflected the importance of senior leadership from throughout the criminal justice system to really buy into these options to make them work, whether it was a budget element that needed to be approved by the City or it was a criminal justice partner who needed to accelerate dispositions or whatever the case might be to make it work. I mention these dates not only to reflect that this is something that has been ongoing, but also to put into context the federal litigation which was commenced on or about July 25th of this year. By the time that lawsuit was filed, the City had already developed the draft 24-point plan, which was adopted the following week at the meeting I mentioned chaired by Mayor Street. So we have been working, as Commissioner King mentioned a moment ago, for well over a year to develop what we 52 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 believe to be a practical solution that is not solely focused, as some perhaps would want us to be focused, on bricks and mortars. I totally agree with the point expressed earlier that if we build them, they will come, and we've got to look for new approaches. That's what we're doing. We're seeing early progress. We must continue our efforts to implement. And so far, the support and buy-in from all of the partners in the criminal justice system, I think, has been superb and we continue to implement the 24-point plan today. Thank you.

I have one question about the state. What is the status of the state taking the inmates?

My recollection, Councilwoman, is that of the first matters that were filed in connection with the aggregated sentences, that they 53 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 were either approved or they were approved with the orders held in abeyance to allow us to have an opportunity to work directly with the state prison system. This is not something that we would want to spring on them any more than we would like to have it sprung on us, but so far, the First Judicial District has been supportive of that concept, which was an added element. In fact, we had a 23-point plan until the issue of aggregated sentences was proposed by the District Attorney's Office was adopted, and now that is also moving forward as well.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Brown.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, gentlemen. COMMISSIONER KING: Good 54 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 morning.

Good morning.

I would like to shift the conversation or discussion back to the challenge you have around recruitment. Do any of the points deal 9 with the issue of recruitment at all? 10 COMMISSIONER KING: I don't 11 think so. 12

Do not. 13 Talk to me a little bit briefly about -- 14

If I may interject. 15 I'm sorry, Councilwoman. I assume you're 16 talking about recruitment of prison 17 personnel? 18

Of 19 correctional officers. Yes, yes, yes. 20

No, it does not. 21

I'm always 22 interested in the pipeline and how we get 23 young people in particular in the 24 pipeline, knowing that we have young people coming out of high schools all the 55 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 time who have done the right thing, who had decent grades and are looking for a way to earn an honest living. So speak to me briefly about the pipeline, the recruitment process. Bullets, if you will. COMMISSIONER KING: Well, the recruitment process begins at a time when Personnel let's us know we're getting toward the end of whatever list that we're using. Then we activate what's called our recruitment team, and the recruitment team, in conjunction with advertisements and things in the newspapers, goes out to the neighborhoods and collects applications and shows the Prison System and convinces people that it's a good place to work and that they should apply. Once that has occurred and they paid their $35 fee, at some point -- I think last time we had about a month to recruit. I think it was the month of July, something like that -- the cut-off 56 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 date is given. Then Personnel processes all those applications. They take the test. People are ranked. When the test is certified, then we have to have an orientation. We usually have that done at the public library. Probably 400 or 500 people come for that, just to explain in more detail of what we do at the prisons. Then after that, that's when the process gets a little more complicated for people, because then you have to fill out your PDQ, I think it's called. It's all the questions about everything you've ever done in life, and also take a lie detector test. And those things wash a lot of people out.

I'm sure it starts to wean folk, if you will. COMMISSIONER KING: It starts to wean the people out, because there's a lot of people who think it's okay to be a CO and smoke marijuana or do other things, and they write that down. 57 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711

Okay. What's the starting age for a correctional officer? COMMISSIONER KING: I believe it's 19. No; 20.

Any linkages, any thought given to a strategic partnership with the Community College of Philadelphia for folks who are in two-year programs looking for a way to earn money, want to pursue the criminal justice system as a career and this potentially being an entry point? COMMISSIONER KING: No, I hadn't thought of that.

So I would offer that up for serious consideration, because I know it works, having done a lot of work in recruitment in another life. I do not know this to be factual, so I'm simply stating observation made from other testimony. There's an observation that over 150 58 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 correctional officers decided to leave the Philadelphia Prison System. Is that true, and if true, what reasons would you cite for that kind of large number leaving the system at one time, if that is indeed factual? COMMISSIONER KING: That's not true. We didn't have 161 people leave at one time. We have an attrition rate of about eight to ten a month. So if you multiple that out, that's about 120 people, if you take it at the ten a month. That's what we normally lose a year. So that is figured into how many people go into a class, et cetera. Now, we did have -- in early '07 (sic), there were a lot of people who left to go to the Sheriff's Department all at once, but it wasn't 161. The Sheriff was actively recruiting. It was partly because of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee and his need to staff up to open the courtrooms to reduce the population. So we had a bit of a 59 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 spike in July for people who were leaving to go to the Sheriff's Department, but it was not 161 people.

Finally, Councilwoman Marian Tasco is a member of the National League of Cities wherein professionals in elected and appointed office convene periodically throughout the year and simply share what's happening in their cities in different areas. So with other professionals that you network with nationwide, if you had to ID a city that sort of gets it right for whatever that is -- and that's relative when it comes to managing this kind of large system -- what city would you look at as a prospective model to emulate in moving to where you want this 24-point plan to go to? COMMISSIONER KING: Philadelphia. I mean, I go to -- we have the Association of State Correctional Administrators. We have the American 60 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Jail Association. I don't know of any other city in the entire country that's doing what we're doing. I mean, this is really -- the last time I talked to some correctional professionals that was in New Jersey, their state correctional system, and they have a problem there where, I think, 40 percent of their inmates max out. They have no reentry plan for them. They just sort of max out in their sentence, they give them a token and they go back to Newark or wherever it is they came from. And when I mentioned over there what we were doing here, they were amazed. Well, how did you all do that? I mean, I think -- and I'm not being facetious here -- that we're really on the right track here. I mean, we've looked -- even the expert that the inmates hired in the federal litigation, they said, What would you do, and he basically rattled off what we're doing here in Philadelphia. I really think 61 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 that we're ahead of the game and the curve here in Philadelphia with what we're doing.

Is overcrowdedness a challenge in other of those top ten cities? COMMISSIONER KING: Yes. We are not unique in the problem of overcrowding. You go to New York, you go to Los Angeles, you go to California, you go to New Jersey. During the time that we were looking for extra beds in the past year, every county in Pennsylvania is full and has no room. It's not unique. There's some building going on in other, but every major city has this problem.

Councilwoman, if I may just follow up, because I think in fairness to my client, I should point out that when we talk about overcrowding as the Commissioner just did, we're really talking about not as desired in terms of our deployment of the personnel in the 62 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 system. It is certainly not an indication that somehow we believe that we fall short of either legal or constitutional requirements, which have been alleged. We believe that we can do better and we're working to do better, but we certainly are meeting what we also believe to be the legal standards associated with the management of our prison population. COMMISSIONER KING: We have in addition to this 24-point plan in the last four years, the prisons have been accredited by the National Commission on Correctional Healthcare for our healthcare that we provide at the prison. We're getting ready to start accreditation for the American Correctional Association. So we're moving forward in the prison. There are a lot of challenges. We have challenges with staffing and the population, but we continue to move forward at the prison. So there's a lot 63 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 of things going on here in Philadelphia that other people aren't doing.

Just a couple more questions, Madam Chair. And to your statement that there's always room for improvement, if we had to exempt and remove the issue of overcrowdedness and the issue of not enough new recruits in the pipeline, what grade would you give? And for sure it's unfair to reduce an issue of this scale simplistically to a grade, A, B, C, D, E, F, G. So if you had to give a grade on where you are and factor in what the City Solicitor has just said with regards to improvement, I'm curious to know what would that grade be. COMMISSIONER KING: You mean what grade would I give the Prison System?

Yes. COMMISSIONER KING: I think we are an A. I think we're a fantastic organization. People snicker, but given 64 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 all the things that we have to deal with, all the inmates that we deal with, 33,000 admissions a year or whatever, the indicators that we look at, use of force, assaults, none of that stuff is up. Most months it's down, and that indicates to me that all the people are doing a fantastic job dealing with the challenges that we have to deal with in running a safe and secure system. If not, you would see indicators on assaults, use of force and other things that skyrocket. You don't see them, and we monitor them and we know that.

My final question. Again, an allegation. I have not a clue whether or not it's factual, but what is done to separate inmates who indeed have mental health issues separating them from hard-core criminals? COMMISSIONER KING: Some of the people with mental health problems are hard-core criminals, but there's a whole host of things. We have a Mental Health 65 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Unit in the Detention Center that houses the chronic medically ill. I believe that's less than 100 beds there. We have several transitional or step-down units for people who have gone through that process in the Acute Unit to deal with those people. Now, that doesn't mean that we're able to deal with all the people who have mental health issues, because out of the 8,815, I think it's 1,500 of them are on the mental health caseload. We're aware that that is a problem and there are -- we took a major initiative to go up to New York and we've been to other jurisdictions, because we want to develop another type of unit, because there are people who are chronically mentally ill and there are people who have behavioral problems. This is what the mental health people tell me. People who are self-destructive, who are self-mutilators, things of that nature. And we're working to develop another sort 66 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 of unit where we put those types of inmates and give some special training to the correctional staff so they have a chance to deal with those.

Indeed. COMMISSIONER KING: So there are a lot of options that we have to segregate the mental health population and we're continuing to work on those. Not perfect, but we continue to work on that. It's an issue that's not lost on us, and we have quite an extensive partnership with all the people in the City that deal with mental health working on that problem.

I would like to finish where I started, and when we look and consider the number of young people out of work, it requires government to work smarter and more strategically in forming partnerships with those who are in the business of training, like PWDC and Philadelphia OIC and Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs 67 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Coalition, to fix that very doable challenge, the issue of recruitment and a continuing pipeline. I mean, human resource professionals know how to keep a continuing pipeline so as soon as the need is there, you have five or six candidates who have met all the other criteria that you just mentioned who are in the waiting for a job. Thank you for your testimony. COMMISSIONER KING: Thank you.

Councilman Ramos.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Both the Managing Director and the Prison Commissioner both gave me some very good insight of how you're working on carrying out some remedies for the overcrowding in our system, and I do know that overcrowding and security are linked together, but I did not hear either one of you use the word "security" much during your testimony. 68 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 (Applause.)

I did not mean that as a negative, because you indeed presented the issue as an overcrowding issue that I know is at the heart of security. One of the statistics that you did mention was -- I think it was you, Commissioner -- that in the last six months, this increase -- the Managing Director, you made reference that he had allowed for more correctional officers to be hired and I believe you referred to it that you had done this in the last six months; is that correct? COMMISSIONER KING: I believe it was from April to July.

April to July. Was that due to the published reports in the newspapers and some people from within the system? I believe at one point -- and I don't have a quote here -- but I believe at one point Local 159 brought out that they concurred with some 69 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 public reports in our daily newspaper that there was a volatile situation, that there was in fact a security problem in the prisons. Was it because of those reports, those public reports, that you went on to hire the additional correctional officers and, if so, in doing so, were you able to bring down a security problem, or do you concur with those reports and some of the statements made by people from within the Prison System?

Councilman, let me take part of that question as to the support for additional staffing. I would refer you to the record of City Council during our budget testimony in the context of the Police Department's budget where we had a very extensive discussion in City Council about straight time versus overtime, and in the context of talking about police, we talked about prisons and why we had a different 70 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 approach with respect to prisons, and the Administration -- and I speaking for the Administration -- articulated the position that on prisons, that our continuing approach has been to staff up because we thought the overtime was not good, from a personnel management perspective or from a financial perspective. So in terms of when our continued support for maintaining higher level of staffing at the prisons, I would refer to that as a moment in time where we've sort of been on the record here at City Council but prior to the stories that you're mentioning. COMMISSIONER KING: And just I would have Council understand that this staffing issue isn't something that we look at only when there's an article in the newspaper. Staffing is an ongoing conversation that we're having with the Managing Director's Office, the Budget Office. And in answer to your question, 71 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 no. The increase, the 150 people that we got in April, didn't have anything to do with any newspaper article. It was something that we were planning all along. It just so happened that it all got started and we were able to get it off the ground when we did in April. I think that's when we actually started the class, but as I said, there's a whole process to getting the people there that started a long time before that.

Did we in fact have a volatile situation during the summer in any of your prisons or jails? COMMISSIONER KING: I would not use the word "volatile," but I was very, very concerned during the summer about what was going on at the prison, especially back in June, because we had record numbers of inmates at the prison. The staff was upset with the overtime restrictions that were there. There were a lot of things going on that made me very concerned, and as a result of that, 72 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 the extra staff was coming and then I went back to the Managing Director and said, You have to allow us to spend beyond the overtime limits that we had, and he allowed me to do that, and we also had a process of rolling admissions in the summer. And that was because we were following the numbers, and it indicated that things were increasing at that point. So we took those steps. We brought the extra people on. We increased overtime spending, I think it was, probably around $650,000 to $700,000 a pay period. We went up over the summer. We were spending 950 to a million dollars every two weeks on overtime, and my sense of after we did those things and I walked around and talked to people, that the situation changed and the, I guess, stress level or the concern level of the staff and myself went down as opposed to where it was in June. 73 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711

So you do concur with some of the newspaper reports and some of the statements made from people within the Prison System that we did have a security concern in some of the facilities in our prison? COMMISSIONER KING: I was concerned with the security and everything that was going on therein, very concerned in June. That's why I took the action that I did.

And according to your testimony and, again, both of you put it within the framework overcrowding, it seems like some certain measures have been taken, including the oversight committee that the Solicitor is involved in. You're here this morning. Is our inmate population, our staff, vendors, the other people that work in our prisons, are they safe right now as you testify? Is that a safe environment right now? 74 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 COMMISSIONER KING: The environment at the prisons is safe, but you have to remember that it's a prison. It's not your house, my house. We have a lot of dangerous people there, and you're never going to have a prison where nothing goes wrong.

I understand the latter. Are you saying that right now within the framework of what you just lastly said that this is in fact a safer day in our Prison System than it was on those days when there were reports that were published? Is it safer today than it was three months ago? COMMISSIONER KING: Yes.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Let me just follow up on that. Do you still have cells that are overcrowded and people sleeping in the waiting areas and that kind of thing, which has an impact on security? Is 75 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 every inmate assigned to a cell now? COMMISSIONER KING: Every inmate is assigned to a bed, except those inmates that are in the receiving room, however long the receiving room at CFCF or maybe at RCF or if we have to open other receiving rooms, but every inmate there has a bed.

Where is the bed located? COMMISSIONER KING: The beds are located all over the Prison System.

They are not in a cell or are they in corridors or in -- COMMISSIONER KING: No. 18

-- unsecured sites? COMMISSIONER KING: No. 21

Did you say no? COMMISSIONER KING: No. 24

So all of the beds are in secured sites where the 76 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 officers would not feel that they are unsafe? COMMISSIONER KING: There are a lot of different -- we have six different facilities and three little satellite buildings, and a lot of them are all set up differently. So, for example, at the Detention Center, one of the areas that most concerns us is the dorm area, and that's where you have -- we've had up to 230 people in a dormitory style area with bunk beds and a big space, lots of people, and that's probably the area that concerns us the most in the Prison System, and I know that it's one of the areas that's often mentioned by the union. When we sent 100 inmates to Monmouth County, we were able to reduce three of those dorms down to 192 people. So we've reduced the issues and challenges on those areas. We've had to add beds at the House of Correction. It was a jail -- 77 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 originally the way we housed people was two to a cell. We have three to a cell at the House of Correction. In CFCF, that building was originally designed, I think, for 2,600 -- 2,100 people, I think, something like that. We've got 2,800 people in there. Some of them are in blue boats, tripled celled in the intake area, and there are other similar examples. In CFCF, we had rooms where social workers used to work. Under court supervision, we put toilets, we put beds, we put inmates, and that's the way we have to deal at the prison because, again, we do not have the opportunity to say, Don't send us any more people, and we can't release people. So when they send them, we have to find places to put them. But every inmate, unless you're in one of the receiving rooms for a period of time, has a bed to sleep in and they're under some sort of security, whether it's some of them are in cells, 78 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 some of them are in dormitory areas, but all of them are in an enclosed, secure area that's locked.

Let me just ask you to not leave. We will come back to this. We're going to allow our Controller to speak. Then what I'd like to do is to bring up some of the individuals who have requested to testify so that we can get another perspective and then have you come back and respond to some of the concerns raised by these individuals. And we'd like for you to stay so you can hear, and the same thing with you, Romy. I know you may have to leave, Mr. Managing Director, but if you could come back since you are a policy person and control, to some measure, the purse strings and decisions that are made about what goes on at these prisons. We certainly need to have you here to hear what's going on.

Madam Chairwoman, I 79 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 appreciate your leave for me to go to the commitment that I mentioned to you. I certainly have staff here taking notes, and I hope to be back before the hearing is over, but we'll also be in communication here, so should you need me, there will be somebody here from my office and they'll pull me out of that meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr. Butkovitz, would you like to come present your testimony. He's the City Controller. And then I'm going to call up some members from the union and some employees from the Detention Center and the House of Corrections. Thank you so much for your testimony.

Good morning, Councilwoman Tasco and members of the Public Health Committee and members of 80 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 City Council. First I'd like to introduce Drae Jones, who is a Policy Director in the Controller's Office, who has done an excellent job of preparing a report that we will be releasing this week addressing the overcrowding issue. So I wanted to give her an opportunity to meet the Council.

Good morning.

Good morning and welcome.

Thank you.

The next thing I would like to say is, I would like to take a moment to recognize the work the correction officers have done during this long, hot summer. We had an opportunity to go out to the prison and to witness some of the conditions that have been discussed, the 12 to 16 people in holding cells, the possibility of people getting showers, people being held in the gym area where only two women correction 81 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 officers were in there with about 80 male inmates. I think they showed tremendous courage and stamina in going to work every day, and they really used their wits in keeping people calm. Some of the facilities weren't air conditioned. You had 30 or 40 people in a fenced-in area without any cool air on some of those very hot days. So it's both a tribute to their using their wits and it's miraculous that there was not a serious, violent incident in the prisons during the summer. I'd like to talk about the approach that our office is taking to this problem. I mean, there's really only two approaches ultimately to managing this problem, and, that is, the construction of new facilities or a significant reduction of the numbers of people that we're holding in the Philadelphia jail. We've chosen to focus on the second problem. According to latest census 82 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 numbers available, Philadelphia's current inmate population of approximately 8,900 is an all-time high. An increase in violent crime, coupled with a public that is demanding longer sentences for violent crimes and a pressurized judiciary, are all contributing factors. There's no 9 magic wand that solves this problem, but we have developed several initiatives, one of which has to do with a determination to shift resources from Prisons to better supervision through Probation and Parole. Currently, the City has 275 probation and parole officers in the Adult Probation and Parole Department. They're responsible for monitoring 50,000 offenders, many of which have multiple cases. The standard in the industry for probation and parole caseloads is one officer to 35 cases. Now, you can see in that kind of situation an officer could have pretty good control of the person that he's responsible for. That's an 83 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 ideal. Pennsylvania is far from the ideal. The Pennsylvania ratio is one to 75. Philadelphia ratio is one to 182. So it's clear that we are not serious about making probation and parole in Philadelphia an effective way to monitor people short of having them released into the community. Philadelphia has ranked No. 1 by a very large majority in Pennsylvania in the number of -- in this ratio. The second approach that we are suggesting is the provision of multiple bail sites. Right now the City only has one bail site at the Criminal Justice Center, and it's convenient for purposes of maintaining records, but it is very difficult for people who have to bail out friends or relatives, particularly if they have to rely on public transportation. We've calculated it. It can be a four-hour trek up to the Northeast after posting bail to CJC, and this adds 84 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 to the delays in release. Also, the City does not have electronic transfers or faxing of bail documents. Therefore, the person who posts the bail has to go to the CJC, bring their cash or their real estate certification, get the bail bond, take that from Center City to the Northeast by subway or bus. It's a problem that in this era of technology is relatively easy to solve. Finally, there is an issue of improved document monitoring and preparation. One of the central complaints that we keep hearing over and over again is that the incarceration documents forwarded with inmates are inaccurate.

The Public Defender's Office has repeatedly provided cases of people who were held in jail for a couple days, for as long as ten days because they were ordered to be released on the day of their hearing and yet it was written down as a date ten days into the future. 85 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 So this is a matter that can be controlled with better editing and supervision. It's silly. It's unconscionable for people to be sitting in jail because that kind of clerical error. As Commissioner King suggested, or I guess it was Solicitor Diaz, something like 60, 65 percent of the inmates in the Philadelphia jails are not adjudged guilty of anything. They are just waiting for trial. So when they get a hearing and they get a release date, they should get released. I guess that's my statement.

Thank you very much. Are there any questions for the Controller? Councilwoman Brown.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Given very 86 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 compelling but in many ways contradictory observations as provided by the previous panel, as a gauge for me, exempting the issue of overcrowding, which there's clear differences, and the issue of lack of adequate number of correction officers, what would be your grade?

What would be my grade?

Yes, for the Philadelphia Prison System as it currently is operating. Did you hear the previous testimony of the three gentlemen?

Yeah.

We partially heard it, Councilwoman.

It depends on how you curve it. Either a C or a D. D, I would think. (Applause.)

So you would have thought a curve factor, right?

Yeah. 87 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711

And so for those who are here who may not fully understand the role of the City Comptroller's Office as it relates to looking at any and all City agencies, state what it is so that we can put your testimony in perspective.

What's my role? Our job is to check agencies, look at the mission, their stated mission, and rationally and in a business-like way determine how much progress they are making towards achieving those objectives. The Prisons Department has been engaged in this study with private consultants. They are very, very close to the vest with the findings and the statistics. They are kind of running out the clock on that, so we don't have access. A lot of the things they're talking about, they're going to unveil in a way that it is difficult to check or second guess. We have to develop our 88 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 own --

Measurement sticks.

-- information through direct inspection, through conversation with people who are involved in the system, through checking alternative ways of handling this problem at other localities, and really we're just coming at it completely independently. This is a constant complaint that I have with a number of agencies, because I do think that if they would incorporate the idea of constructive criticism and having another pair of eyes look at these things who do not have the motivation of justifying or explaining a way past behavior, that we would make stronger advances in improving these issues, but it is what it is.

As a part of your evaluation process, do you also sit down with the leadership of these 89 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 agencies?

Yes.

Has the 24-point plan been shared with your office?

No. 8

Have you requested to see it?

I just heard about it today. I was actually kind of confused about what it was, because I would think if you come into a legislative hearing, you would want to make your three points, or whatever the points are, and I would have thought that at least something would be distributed explaining what the points are. 19

Is it 20 customary for departments to share with 21 you that type of information? 22

No. No. 23 There's a tug of war between us and the 24 departments generally, and I'm sure they want to be in control of the spin when 90 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 they release their own proposal, but I suppose that is supposed to make it more difficult for critics and outside observers to have meaningful input into it. We try not to let it discourage us. We just start from a zero base about what makes -- in some ways, it unfetters us, because we're not burdened by having to incorporate that point of view. We just kind of look at it fresh, see what makes sense, and we are working during my administration to try to be quick about having our opinions out there during the time the policy is being made and not just after the fact.

My final question is, if it's fair to say then that the role of the City Comptroller's Office does not rest purely with the evaluation of financials, but also program service delivery as well?

Well, that's what the important thing is. I mean, the reason looking at financial records is 91 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 important is because everything the City does, it does through the expenditure of money, and if you waste money, then you have less money to do what's important to do. But the City is not in the business of making a profit. The City is in the business of keeping people from being killed, keeping people safe, making sure people get to the hospital on time, making sure the trash gets collected. So that the measurements that are relevant to our people is, how is all of that working, how can that work better, how can it work within the amount of money that we have available for it without raising taxes through the roof. And that's all part of our function.

Well, thank you very much for your testimony. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Would you see a role as Controller being one of participating in 92 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 the solution to problems as opposed to being the critic of the --

Yes.

So do you think it would have been a good idea for you to be part of this Criminal Justice Coordinating Council --

Yes.

-- to have your input into that?

Yes, but I suspect that there will be resistance until people get used to the idea of where we're coming from. Because nobody likes to be audited, nobody likes to see IRS stop at their doorstep, and the assumption is that you're looking to get me and to be a career killer and a problem, and inevitably part of what we do ends up criticizing what is. And the way things work in this political system, people end up getting slapped around for things that weren't perfect. So we have to point out 93 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 problems in order to point out better ways to do it, but we try not to be vilifying people or we're not in the business of destroying careers or reputations. We do think we can find a better way to handle these, and, yeah, I would welcome an opportunity to be part of that conversation.

When were you at the prison? When did you have your visit?

I was at the prison, I believe it was, in July.

Have you been back?

Actually, I tried to go there on the 4th of July and they wouldn't let me -- we tried to do a surprise inspection because we thought that might be the high point of the problem, and, of course, the Commissioner met us and said that he couldn't provide security for us and we'd have to go home and give him a couple days' advanced 94 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 warning. And they kind of took us to the areas that they wanted to take us, and nevertheless, we observed the kinds of conditions that we discussed. Now, there were people who were prison guards who said that there were conditions in other rooms that we weren't allowed to see that had greater problems. There was this whole question about housing in closets. We were shown a room 12 that had been formerly a utility storage area, which was a relatively spacious room, and we were told that that was what was meant by "closets." Now, there are inmates who claim, no, they meant closets like broom closets. So we were never able to figure that out because we didn't have the run of the place. We couldn't get them to open all the closets and see if anybody was actually housed in those conditions, but I think that would be a pretty critical question to clarify with the correction officers. I think if people 95 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 are actually being held in that heat in closets, that would be something that would be important for the Council to figure out.

If you were the Prison Commissioner, what would you do? What would be your resolution to this issue? I mean, we talked about why more people are going into the criminal justice system.

I mean, I would fight for the budget necessary to get the population level down to what was reasonably safe levels. I wouldn't be taking chances on lives. All these things come down to budget issues and to being subsumed under the Administration's overall budget criteria. So I believe the Police Commissioner, the Prison Commissioner, all the department heads are in a tough spot, because they got to speak up, even though they get orders from on highest to what their number is supposed to be. The 96 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 first thing you got to do is make a brutally honest assessment of what the need and the dangers are, and I think that you have to talk to your front-line people, the correction officers, in an environment in which they are not discouraged from being frank but where they are actually encouraged to list all of the specific problems, and then you got to figure out what is my capacity in this particular room and what is the capacity -- one of the ideas we talked about during the summer was the idea of renting space in some of the New Jersey counties, which is something that has been discussed. I don't know if it's one of their points or not. I don't know 19 if they had any luck. 20

They went 21 to Monmouth. 22

They went 23 where? 24

To Monmouth County. 97 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711

Monmouth County. You have to figure out how much space can be rented at what distances and what the budget cost for this is, because these problems are remediable for money. And then I would be a little -- I would be more expedited in this analysis of what the prison population is, because we were told that the computer system at the prison, we were told by the Commissioner, is not capable of providing quick answers to the kinds of questions that they're posing. For example, how many people are being held in the Philadelphia jails because they couldn't make bail. Nobody knows the answer to that. Now, you would think that that would be an easy question to answer, but you have to write a very specific program query, and then you'll get -- one of the things that we wanted to do that we weren't allowed to do was a flow chart of measuring when people arrive at the jail and how long it 98 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 takes -- even to take a sampling of a couple of days and measure how long it takes people to work through that system, and also to do a sampling. If you can't get actual hard data from the computers, again, you could take a month's worth of cases or a week's worth of cases, everything that got sent up there on a particular week, and figure out what percentage of those people were people that couldn't make bail, what percentage of people were there because they were really drug offenders or how many were there on spouse abuse orders, how many were there because of non-payment of child support, how many were there because they're being housed for violent offenses. If you can't get 100 percent correct data, there are sampling techniques that are recognized that could give you a pretty good guess as to what that configuration is. Then I think you sit down with the Mayor and with the Councilmembers and 99 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 you say, Here -- maybe the Controller, and you say, Here is the data. Does anybody have any ideas about how we can separate and triage this problem? Because all human problems are solvable by breaking them down into smaller bite-sized pieces. Anything that comes at you overwhelmingly cannot be handled. But there could be a decision, for example, that at the height of overcrowding, that there would be a moratorium on sending people to the jail for non-payment of child support or for Traffic Court offenses. Right now we don't know how many that is. There could be some special discount bail program if it turns out that bail is the problem. We're sitting here five months after the crisis and people are still talking in theoretical terms about what the construction of the prison population is. Well, it shouldn't be a mystery. The people in the Corrections Department have ownership of that data. Now, if 100 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 they don't know how to extract it from their computer, they could work on other kinds of sampling techniques or they could have cooperated with our request to let us look at their data and help them.

And you got no response?

We got a very defensive response. We got very limited kinds of responses. We got a lot of sales pitch about what their point of view was about how it should be handled, and we were told that most of this analysis is in the hand of their own consultant who is going to come up with some great solution and we should just stay tuned.

Any other questions or comments? (No response.)

Commissioner, before he leaves -- and this may not be your question because we also know that we have a hierarchical 101 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 system here where the Managing Director and the Administration really have some jurisdiction over what goes on in your department, but could we get your take on the Controller's comments? COMMISSIONER KING: I did take some notes. I would say all those -- I can't think of one thing that the Controller said that the City is not doing already. All those things that he talked about -- our computer system is slow, but Dr. Goldkamp was able to access our system, the court system, all the partners in the criminal justice systems, all the computers. It was a laborious task. That's part of the reason it took so long to download those things. He did in fact do a snapshot of the inmate population in November, I think it was, of '05 to determine the flow, how long it takes, what the impediments are. All those things that the Controller talked about we're doing. With regard to Probation and 102 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Parole, that's one of the -- I believe it's one of the points of the 24-point 4 plan, trying to figure out how we can 5 realign their staff or hire more staff. 6 We're actually having ongoing meetings 7 with the Mayor on part of this, because 8 part of it, as I've said in all my 9 testimony, reentry, supporting offenders, 10 making sure they're supported. 11 We have a new partnership up at 12 the prison with Probation and Parole, and 13 just last week -- and this is part of 14 what the Controller also said that 15 everybody in City government has to 16 consider. We talked to Mr. Malvestuto 17 and Mr. Snyder, who run the Probation and 18 Parole Department. As a matter of fact, 19 we're meeting with them again on 20 Wednesday. And they talked about those 21 national statistics concerning about how 22 many people you're supposed to supervise 23 and how big the caseloads are of a lot of 24 those probation officers. And in order to get those caseloads in line, it is the 103 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 estimate of the Probation Department that it will cost the City $20 million. So we're not talking small change here. That's a lot of money given all the things that the City has to do, and we're looking at those things. In regard to looking at the space and how many people can fit there and the leasing opportunities, we're doing all that. The problem is, there aren't many places for us to house inmates. We've canvassed every county in Pennsylvania, every county in Delaware, every county in New Jersey. We've gotten, I think, two or three leads there. I even sent our consultant down to Maryland, see if he could find some bed space, because we understand the border is an hour and a half away. So we're looking at every place that we can do. We're looking in the City for additional space until we can reduce the population, and the issue there is, nobody wants a prison in their 104 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 neighborhood. CEC is a place at D and Erie where we were going to contract for 200 beds and we had some controversy that came up as a result of the fact that people in the neighborhood, even though that's already -- there's Bucks County inmates there, there's state county inmates, they didn't want Philadelphia inmates there. So those are the challenges you face. It's not so much, Okay, how much housing do we need. We can figure that out. Where it's going to be is a challenge and getting the people in that neighborhood or that county. Even one of the counties in New Jersey where we looked, we initially had an agreement and then they said, Well, there's an election coming up, we don't want this issue percolating into the election, come back to us after November 7th. So on November 8th, somebody will be calling that county to look for additional space. 105 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES.

060711 But the City Controller has some very good ideas, and I would say -- I wrote them down -- we're doing all of those things. One of the initiatives with the IT system at the prison, it's been there a long time. We have a new interim plan called the Axiom System that's going to be -- because one of the things, I want to be in a position next spring where I can answer these questions more quickly, because it is very difficult to get to them. We have that up and running. We spent a considerable amount of money getting that interim sort of data-gathering system in place. And we're working with MOIS to work on a long-term fix for the system. But all of those things that he talked about, the City is already doing. Dr. Goldkamp, he's not -- he came here ten years ago. We got to know him because Judge Shapiro hired him to look at the City's criminal justice system 106 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 back in 1995, and there were a lot of other people on that committee who thought he would be good, because he knows the system, he knows where we were ten years ago, and if it weren't for some of the recommendations he came up with at that time, we'd have a lot more inmates than we do. The only thing that I would take issue with that the Controller said that I think is impossible, you can't give -- because the prisons do not control who comes, who goes and when they leave. You could give us trillions of dollars and we'd still have people coming to -- I would love to have the authority to say, The limit at the prison is X number and we are not taking any more prisoners. But what happens then is, as happened in the summer when we did that for a little bit, the police districts get backed up. The Warrant Unit isn't able to arrest people and bring them to the jail. There's a whole host of people 107 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 that feed the Prison System, the Sheriff's Department, the Warrant Office, other jurisdictions, and the citizens I don't think are going to stand for a situation where we reach a situation where we tell the police to stop arresting people. The police need to arrest, and as the Controller says, we need to be very creative about what we do. But all those things that he mentioned, we're doing. We're in the process of doing all of them. And I understand from your perspective as the legislative body -- as I said, I'm probably the most impatient person about these issues, and I'd love to see them move much quicker, but the fact is, if you said, Commissioner King, you're now in charge of the criminal justice system and I could order the judges what to do and the DA what to do, then we'd probably get quicker results, but I don't have that authority, the Mayor doesn't have 108 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 that authority. And the Controller is also right, this has a lot to do with budgets, and City Council and the Mayor have to work together to decide if we're going to spend $20 million on getting the Probation Department up to the staffing levels that they want, what are you not going to do with the million that 10 you're going to spend on Probation and 11 Parole. 12 Now, the argument may be that 13 you're going to save on bed space because 14 you're going to reduce recidivism and 15 you're going to reduce the number of 16 people who come to the prison, but you 17 would have to make that calculation, and 18 the government would have to be willing 19 to say, Yes, we're going to invest $20 20 million for more probation officers. I don't think that's a bad idea, but it's not -- I'm not in control of the money. That's for you and the Mayor to decide.

If I could respond. 109 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711

Mr. Butkovitz.

First of all, I never said that the Philadelphia jail would just unilaterally stop accepting people. I said if we assessed how many people the capacity was in that jail, we could triage and determine which policies ought to be implemented, such as the -- we could then lobby for the non-incarceration of people who are not current on their child support orders or other classifications. I never said we were just going to lock the doors. Secondly, our analysis indicated the cost of 100 more probation or parole officers would be about five and a half million dollars a year, not $20 million. That would reduce the ratio from one to 182 to about one to 109. COMMISSIONER KING: I said to get down to the standard, one to 50.

To get down one to 35? 110 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 COMMISSIONER KING: Yes. That's how much it would cost.

But the point of the matter is, we could make a lot of progress getting close to the Pennsylvania figures. And the other thing that we're going to have to do in terms of our analysis is consider the alternative, which is prison construction and prison staffing are among the largest inflation factors in budgets these days. So if you're just going to project what inmate populations are going to be and we're going to be issuing bonds to build more prisons and paying interest on those bonds, what we need to do is calculate what that cost will be in our annual budget versus the cost of the additional probation and parole officers. And we have a variety of other initiatives that will be included in our report released in a few days, including the creation of specialized mental health courts and 111 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 other things which will separate out specific-needs inmates who can be treated in a less intrusive way than just being in with the general jail population. But we do have to start looking at this in terms of whether our dollars can go further and be more effective in dealing with people who are not violent offenders in other ways. And the other point that I would make is that you cannot just keep piling people into the jails, because what will happen is that there's going to be inevitably a federal court order, just as there was back in the early '90s, that says that Philadelphia will have to open its jail doors and let people out and let people out that none of us would want running around the neighborhoods, and we will have lost control of that decision-making by not making that decision ourselves. So this is not one of those Richard Nixon decisions that either we 112 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 surrender or we bomb Red China. The point of the matter is, if we don't start to take control of this problem in a rational way, we're going to have the very thing that we are most afraid of, which is they're going to be opening the jail doors for very dangerous offenders to be released into the community. COMMISSIONER KING: And then just as a final thing, I guess, again, we're doing those things. Last summer when we had issues with child support people, we went to the Court. Judge Fitzgerald helped us to stem a moratorium on that to help us last summer. This summer we didn't do that, but this is like an object lesson in the dynamics of, for example, the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee.

Is that one of the points? 23 COMMISSIONER KING: I'm not 24 sure if that's one of the 24 points, but we are working on expanding work release, 113 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 and that's something that the prisons has been advocating, because we think it's kind of silly for you to be locked up in prison -- I think we had 150 people like that, for failure to pay child support. Because if you were working before you got to jail, you don't have a job anymore. You're not paying the child support. And I agree with the City Controller, that we should be able to do better with that. But a lot of the issue, for example, with non-violent offenders -- let's say you're non-violent, you have a drug and alcohol problem, which most of them do, or you have a mental health problem, Prison's position would be, there's a lot of those people that don't need to be in the Philadelphia prisons, they need intense supervision and treatment on the outside. One of the issues the City has been facing, though, is finding a place to put them. Nobody wants a drug treatment facility in their 114 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 neighborhood. Nobody wants an intensive mental health treatment center in their neighborhood. So when we go out -- I know the Department of Behavioral Health and other departments are looking into this -- there's a shortage of that type of housing in the City, and that may be a way that City Council can assist us, because if we don't have these sorts of people -- they're not the sorts of people you can just release and have no 14 supervision. Mental health people, for example, need intense supervision, and part of the problem is finding housing in a neighborhood somewhere where these people can be treated. So, again, I would just say that the Controller has some very good ideas and the City is working on all of them.

Let me just -- don't go. Let me just go back to a couple of things earlier where you 115 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 talked about the sites where you place inmates. If your computer system is not up to speed, how are you able to identify what the prisoners are in there for? For instance, if you put prisoners, inmates, in a dormitory setting, do you send the prisoners who are less violent to those sites or who may be the persons who have not paid their child support or a lesser offense, or somebody who may have been locked up for murder or something like that? And how do you know where to place them if you don't have an up-to-date computer system? COMMISSIONER KING: Well, the computer system is up to date enough that it has certain -- (Applause.) COMMISSIONER KING: It has certain basic information that we're able to do. We have a classification system and we have CMR, our record center in CFCF, that when an inmate comes in, you 116 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 take down their information and you put them in appropriate housing based on that classification information. Mr. Butkovitz is talking about the computer system, you know, if you ask it random question Y, you can't necessarily get in to get that aggregate data out. We would have to sit down -- and when he came up, I forget what the question was, but the average length of stay or -- one of the Mayor's issue is, he believes there are a lot of people there who are just there because they're poor and they can't pay their bail. So how many people are there on bail of $500 or less. I can't just press a button and do that. I have to go to our MOIS Department. They have to write a program to extract that information. That's why we've made the investment in our new Axiom System, and we have a whole list of requirements of questions people have asked, things I want to know so that come December, January, we're better able to 117 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 pull that information out so we can determine, for example, with the 24-point plan -- and we have Judge Fitzgerald and his accelerated court procedure. Come January, I want to be able to tell, is that working, how many inmates have been released early, earlier than they would have been otherwise based on that new procedure that he's put in place. And that's what we're working toward. And we're also working toward having this system in place before we replace Lock and Track so we don't have to have Dr. Goldkamp come back every ten years and tell us what the problems are. We will be tracking those things. And when the bail commissioners are diverting from the bail guidelines, as his report has indicated, we'll know that and we can bring that to people's attention and say, You have to do something about this.

So when is all of this going to be up to working? COMMISSIONER KING: We had beta 118 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 testing I know earlier, in the late summer. The last meeting I had with them in December, we're going to have something up and running where I can ask these types of questions. I mean, we bought the software. It's called Cogno software. We have software. We have a technical team that's working on this. And we've been working on it for over year, I would say.

Is beta something new? I think beta refers back to the old computer system. COMMISSIONER KING: No. It's IT lingo. It says we've developed something, here's the beta version; i.e., it's not functional yet, but here's what we've come up with and how it would work. And they gave us a few examples. We've had that demonstration, and now they're moving it to the next level, so in December or so we can have some actual data, so when you ask me whatever question, I'll be able to answer. 119 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711

Let me just ask you a question that none of us have asked, but we've asked each other. Have you seen the 24-point plan and where is it and when will we see it? COMMISSIONER KING: Yes. I've seen Dr. Goldkamp's drafts. I've seen the 24-point plan. I couldn't recite all the points. I could talk about some, 11 but the City Solicitor is the one that, I 12 guess I would say, has care, custody and 13 control of the 24-point plan, as well as 14 the other members of the CJCC. I mean, 15 the judges have a copy, the Public 16 Defender's Office, the DA. Everybody who 17 is on that committee has a part of -- 18

You're not 19 part of the committee? 20 COMMISSIONER KING: I think 21 what the -- that would be a question -- 22 I'd love to have you on the committee, 23 but you'd have to talk to the City 24 Solicitor about that.

No, no, 120 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 no. Are you on the committee? COMMISSIONER KING: Yes, I'm on the committee.

But they haven't given you a copy? COMMISSIONER KING: No, I have a copy of the 24-point plan. I just think that there are a lot of people there and they don't want the plan used in the wrong way, so they're waiting until the report is finalized. And I don't know exactly what the Solicitor's plans are for that.

Any other questions?

I asked this before, but you have to forgive me. I do not remember the answer. City Comptroller, you have had conversations with the leadership as you prepare your report, correct?

Leadership of -- yes. Yes.

The 121 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 leadership of the Philadelphia Prison System. Forgive me. So we know clearly there's a major divide if the leadership of the Philadelphia Prison System would give itself the grade of an A and your analysis and evaluation moves it to a C. So therein lies an opportunity to close the gap, at least with some of those items cited in the findings of the report that you have coming forward, as well as this anticipated 24-point plan, period. Thank you for your testimony.

Councilwoman Blackwell.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Let me commend the Chair for holding these important hearings and thank you also to my colleagues, Councilwoman Reynolds Brown and Juan Ramos, who are concerned about this very important issue. Just last week, we had hearings on a Call to Action, which is 122 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 what we view as the next step in reducing violence in our City, and we thank the Controller and the Prison Commissioner for their testimony then. And I was very interested to learn -- and maybe it's been said already. I'm sorry. I've been in meetings all morning -- that we spend $88 a day for prisoners, and it's just amazing that more than any place in the world -- I mean, we used to tie with like South Africa. Now we have more inmates than anybody. And we learned about a case where a young man owed $134 in support and was locked up. And we'd rather see him wear an ankle bracelet and get out there and be forced to work for those support payments. So obviously it's up to us as a City and a society to do better about who is locked up, who isn't and how we handle that whole issue of overcrowding. Certainly we know it's not safe by all the standards, and having to open 123 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 old prisons doesn't work and having people sleep in common space, in kitchen space isn't safe. So it's just not good, and we are hopeful -- I am hopeful that out of our hearings, Call to Action, out of your hearings, Madam Chairwoman, on this whole issue of overcrowding that something good will allow us to put all of this information together and have a comprehensive approach. I mean, as you know, we also had a skit from Sharon Baptist Church and Reverend Dr. Keith Reed who talked about an approach to violence. So we've tried to approach it, I believe, from every area we can. And when we have scholars such as we have here and experts in this field who can provide all the data we need and who have the firsthand experience, we're hopeful that with our working together, that certainly we can be part of the solution to say what can happen. We did come up with job 124 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 training. We did come up with classes. We did come up with programs for ex-offenders pre and post incarceration, and we have those to certainly submit to your Committee for your record, as well as that for our own for a Call to Action. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for your comments. It was a very productive hearing last week. I was not here, but I did watch it for the most part, and what it takes is a very inclusive approach to trying to deal with the problems that we have in the City, particularly around the whole issue of criminal justice. So we thank Councilwoman Blackwell for her action. We thank you, Mr. Controller, for your action. And, Commissioner, we appreciate you. You just stay right here. COMMISSIONER KING: Okay.

Okay. 125 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 COMMISSIONER KING: You want me stay in this spot or can I go back --

You can sit in your chair. We'll call you as need be. We know we have two people from the prison side, but if they will allow me to bring up some of the -- if that's okay with you. I'd like to bring up Ms. Tanya Jones from the Detention Center, if she's here; Gilbert Hamilton from the House of Corrections; Latoya Lockett; Rochelle Reddy; Jennifer Zayas; and Jennifer Leake and Mr. Lorenzo North. We're going to take about three minutes just before you begin. We have to let the stenographer have a moment, and then we'll come back. (Short recess.)

We're ready. Thank you so much. Have you decided who is going first? 126 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Could we have your attention, please. We're going to be resuming the hearing. Mr. North, would you identify yourself for the record, please, and proceed with your testimony.

My name Lorenzo North. I'm the President of Local 159.

Speak into the microphone. Make sure his mike is on, please.

My name Lorenzo North. I'm the President of Local 159, District Council 33. I'd like to thank the Committee on Human Services for holding these hearings on the problems at the Philadelphia Prison System. This morning you will hear from shop stewards representing six institutions that's represented over 1,800 correction officers. Sixty percent of these officers are female in the City 127 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 of Philadelphia. They will testify and present evidence demonstrating that Commissioner Leon King's lack of safety measures for correction officers, support staff and inmates is based on the word "money." In fact, Commissioner King made a statement at one of his meetings that security is not the main priority of the prison anymore, it's the budget. In addition, you will hear testimony providing clear details of violent assaults, rapes, attempted rapes and, sadly, death of inmates. Assaults on correction officers went up 50 percent. Assaults on other inmates have tripled. And the Philadelphia Prison System has failed to maintain security needed to protect both inmates and staff from harm. Furthermore, you will learn how the Philadelphia Prison System holds more than 8,800 inmates, far more than they were designed to contain. As a result, the Prison administration has placed 128 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 inmates in cells designed to hold two and house large number of inmates in unsafe areas designed for recreation and social services. You will hear constant threats from inmates to riot and murder officers. You will learn how correctional officers have been a scapegoat for prison officials, who have given harsh suspensions and numerous terminations for minor infractions and conditions or events out of their control. You will learn how the Philadelphia Prison System's top officials transfer of veteran officers could have sent an inmate to his death at PICC, why over 150 officers decided to leave the Philadelphia Prison System since 2006. That's the end of my testimony, but I hear the testimony of Commissioner King today. It's mild practice. It's a shame. The City of Philadelphia is in a crisis -- I mean, the Philadelphia Prison System is in a crisis. And he had -- 129 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 during the summer of 2006, if we didn't threaten legal action against him, my officers will still be working in unsafe conditions, which they still are. We had inmates locked down for almost two years, not being out, because he decided to replace the mandatory posts, "mandatory" indicating that these posts must be filled at all times. As of this day, they go unmanned. That's a security problem. You cannot run the prisons without the right staff. That's where inmates get stabbed. That's where inmates get raped, inmates die. But Commissioner King don't seem to understand that. The union is working with the Administration to provide solutions, but you have to provide security to keep the inmates and the officers and support staff safe from harm, and he not doing that. Thank you.

Thank you 130 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 very much. We'll just have all the testimony and then we'll come back with questions. Okay? Miss, madam.

Councilpeople, my name is Tanya M. Jones and I'm the shop steward at the Detention Center. I, along with several other shop stewards that represent the correctional officers of the Philadelphia Prison System, wish to bring to your attention the breaches in security and wrong doings in the Prison System. I'd also like to bring to your attention that there is an abundance of favoritism going on and possible repercussions to officers that testify about these situations today. On May 31st going into June 1st on the 11:00 to 7:00 shift, no yard patrol was ran due to lack of officers. On the same day, annex officers were made to leave their post unattended to assist with the count of the dorms, leaving 131 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 their posts unmanned. That's a breach of security. No detail officers to run courts, leaving housing officers to wake courts up by themselves. That's a breach of security. That's 4 o'clock in the morning, leaving one officer with a minimum of 224 inmates to wake them up, get them ready for court and run them out. On June the 10th of 2006 at DC -- DC became an intake jail due to the overcrowdings over at CFCF. When the DC officer called out sick, no officer was replaced, leaving only two CFCF officers there, which is a breach of security. You have inmates running in and out going to court, sheriff officers coming in to take inmates out. So we're short of staff again. June 21st of 2006, posts were being cut to save money. Officers are at risk. No block medication officers, which means the housing officer has to 132 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 leave their area, leaving one officer on that area to run medication. Breach of security. June 22nd, there was a fight on Echo Dorm between inmates. No supervisor to respond due to shortage. Our supervisors consist of a shift commander, a kitchen sergeant, a sergeant assigned to PHSW and a center control sergeant. There needs to be a supervisor on the floor at all times in case anything happens to supervise the officers and the inmates. At no time should a shift commander be on the floor to assist with anything just in case there is a riot that breaks out. The shift commander's job is to get in contact with the deputy wardens, the wardens, the deputy commissioner and the commissioners. If they're on the floor doing other supervisors' job, who is to get in contact with these people? On August 13th, Gulf Dorm had 133 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. m. m. with a full complement of inmates. On your paper it says a census of 224, but that was wrong. It was a census of 227. At that time, DC's dorms went up to 230. They only had three officers on the unit. After a certain amount of time, me talking to the shift commander, they decided to move them down to the gym, because the officers weren't able to see these inmates. You can't see inmates do tours in the dark. On August the 20th, only three supervisors on duty: Center control officer, shift commander and a roving floor lieutenant. And on that day, several officers were ordered to run yard exercises to keep the inmates happy. Breach of security. On October 18th, I myself went to Warden Delaney with the written agreement between Administration and Local 159 about the ratio for the older jails, which means Detention Center and 134 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 House of Correction. They are mass movement jails. We are to run them 58 inmates to one officer. They are being ran 64 to one. Warden Delaney told me he would contact me at a later date to let me know what they were going to do, but we were ordered to open up anyway. Breach of security. m. No 12 shakedowns conducted until the next morning, which gives inmates time to move these weapons around in the jail. There could possibly be a weapon in an officer's back, neck or anything. Two days ago, assistance was needed on Echo Dorm to control the inmates due to a fight on the housing area.

Only two officers were on that area due to an officer being pulled down to the Chow Hall to run the meal. The census was 187. There are several other things that I wrote down that you don't have in 135 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 front of you, but I wanted to bring to your attention. I Dorm was turned into a housing area that now holds 80 inmates. This is right behind the kitchen, where they have access to all the things that they work with in kitchen, the knives and things like that. That's a breach of security. The morale in the jails is not low. It's non-existent. )

We are constantly put down on an everyday basis. And from our understanding, it's an order now that the supervisors give kudos to the officers to make us feel better now. If it's not genuine, then why are you doing it? It shouldn't be an order. We are law-abiding citizens. We're in there to do our job. We're doing our job. I don't want to have my kids get a phone call saying, Your mother 136 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 was killed in jail because somebody is worried about money. It's a security issue all the time. That's what we're there for, to keep these inmates locked up, to keep them safe, of course, but to keep ourselves safe, too. Security equipment, we don't have radios that work. We do not have radios that work. I'm sure up on the third floor their radios work, but we don't have batteries that work. We have gates that are falling apart that we constantly call maintenance to fix, but it's not in the budget. We don't have the stab-proof vest that we're supposed to have. In the Detention Center, we only have two. Now, how many officers is there? I believe it's over 300. So you mean we get to take time when you wear that today and you won't get stabbed, but the other officers do get stabbed. We don't have adequate equipment. The PA systems don't work. So when they call for something such as a 137 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 response, you don't hear it. That means an officer needs assistance. I won't know if an officer needs assistance until I see a bunch of CO's running down the hallway. (Applause.)

We shut down the jails -- excuse me. We don't shut down the jails, but administration shuts down the jails so they could pull officers to go on marches that have nothing to do with the jail system. (Applause.)

They were speaking on mental health issues earlier, which is Special Management Unit over at DC. Officers are being pulled from Special Management Unit to go run chow. We have inmates over there that take psych meds that have the strength of three to four men. Now, not only is it one officer working a post, you have officers that are females working a post. One officer that you have to open up the 138 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 doors to give them their medication and/or food. This is not acceptable. This is not acceptable. We're going in there every day, and I understand they have an issue with people calling out sick, but do they think we're under stress? Did anybody ever take time to come in and find out do the officers need anything as far as talking to somebody, as far as making sure the equipment is there? We're out here buying bikes for a bike patrol we really don't need. Those officers need to be inside the jail. (Applause.)

One more thing. I put in a memo to my warden stating that we needed a copy of all of the stabbings that went on in DC in July and August. They returned a letter stating that I had to see their lawyer, because they felt as though we were trying to press charges against them. But that's something that should be given 139 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 at any given time to a shop steward. We have paperwork stating that if we ask for any information, it should be given. Things are being kept away from us. They're doing things the way they want to do them. There's a lot of favoritism inside these jails. If you're my friend, if you're doing what I want you to do, then you can get this post and things like that. Me myself, I'm not worried about them at the bottom of the tier. I'm on a dorm with 224 inmates. Been there for seven years. I have no 15 problem with it. Please help us. (Applause.)

Thank you very much. Who is going to be next?

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

I'd like thank you for having us. 140 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Can you ever be safe in jail?

What is your name, please.

My name is Gilbert Hamilton from the House of Correction. I'm the stop steward. Can you ever be safe in jail? My answer to that is, probably not. Can it be manageable? Yes, with the proper supervision, right administration. A couple years back, you had Operation Safe Streets. Whatever happened to Operation Safe Prisons? You -- not you, but the City government has flooded the prisons with these same people that they wanted off the street, dropped them in our lap. What are we to do with them? Stack them on top of each other? I have a problem -- and I'm a little nervous, but I have a problem with the fact that we go unrecognized. The public does not know what we face every day. If they did, I'm pretty sure they'd 141 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 be bringing us food baskets, Band-aids, something cold to drink on them hot days. (Applause.)

Until this past summer under Mr. North, we started to get a little bit of exposure through the media. I'd like to thank him for that. But it shouldn't have took that. (Applause.)

It should not have taken for one man to stand up and go to the media and say, We got problems, because these problems have been in existence for a long time. I guess I'm a little bit more fortunate at the House of Correction. Some of the issues that I have to deal with usually are corrected, but I'm a man of commonsense, and if I can see it, why can't you? Also, we have posts that are also being pulled to leave a protective custody inmate unaccompanied, unsupervised, under directions of a 142 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 supervisor. It is wrong. An officer got charged with that, and he's currently under a five-day suspension whenever he receives notice. We have a juvenile population -- and this is one of the reasons why I'm going to be real angry when I talk about this. We have a juvenile population of over 115, 120. We have 75 of them as of this morning that are in triple cells. You're talking high-custody-level inmates sitting on top of each other. We just had two days ago possibly a rape that we don't know whether it actually came true. We are overcrowded. We need our own facility. Since 1998 when I started working with the juveniles, we've been promised a facility, a location, and it's all been talk. I don't know who is bringing us the talk, but when we talk about overcrowding and understaffing, I have post orders on my unit right now that says that I'm supposed to have four 143 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 people on that unit from the hours of 7:00 to 3:00 and three people on that unit from the hours of 3:00 to 11:00. We have three during 7:00 to 3:00 and three at night. We have no one designated to man the rear, which is where we put all the punitive and administrative -- all the, quote/unquote, bad boys. We have mixed-in population back there. There's no place for us to go. Overcrowding deals with the adults, but the juveniles I believe that are high custody and high strung, thank God, we haven't had any major incidents on that unit, but that matter needs to be beefed up. In closing, I would just like to say, when the public can really see what we do, I know we could be appreciated, because right now as a group, I think we feel very unappreciated. Thank you 144 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 (Applause.)

Thank you very much.

Good morning. My name is Jennifer Zayas. I'm a correctional officer at RCF. I'm also the secretary for Local 159. First, I would like to thank you for allowing us the opportunity to bring our issues forward to you so that it's no longer a dark society in the Prison Systems where nobody knows what's going on. Thank you for the opportunity to be able to expose these issues. I would like to start with the mission of the Prison System. When Commissioner King came on to the Prison System, he came with a mission, and the mission statement goes as follows: It is the mission of the Prison System to provide a secure environment that adequately detains persons accused of or convicted of illegal acts, to maintain a safe environment and to provide programs 145 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 for those that are accused of an illegal act. That's not what's going on in the Prison System. It is not a secure environment. The conditions in the Prison System are so bad right now, we have had multiple stabbings. Let me start by saying that I was once a supervisor for PICC, which is the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Facility. At this facility, there is a stabbing a week, more so like two a day. It's getting to that. I was a supervisor over there, and under my supervision, we had a nurse, who because we didn't have rovers on the floor, she was assaulted sexually by a sexual predator who was being held for trial for committing sexual acts against women. She was in her office when he walked in. Because there were no rovers, meaning an officer standing outside in that area -- there's supposed to be two officers assigned. What they were doing 146 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 at the institution is putting the officers on units to eliminate overtime. Because they didn't want to pay overtime, they were working the jail short and having all of the units open. So what happened was, the inmate went into her office and began to fondle her. If it wasn't because there was a response call to A Unit in which the overhead called -- and I was the supervisor on duty running to that area -- the inmate comes running out of her office, and that's the only reason why it stopped. If on that particular day there was no response call, this inmate would have probably raped the nurse. This is the kind of situations that are going on inside of the Prison System today as a result of the management working us short. Me being a supervisor over there, my personal story is that I moved to the 11:00 to 7:00 shift. I was 147 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 ordered to take a post to eliminate overtime. When I addressed the concerns that I was the only supervisor on the floor and that I was concerned about the safety of the officers and of the inmates, I was ordered to go home and suspended. Not only was I suspended, I was demoted from being a supervisor, and the cause was because I was jeopardizing the safety and the security of the institution, when in fact I was concerned about the safety and security of the institution. And when I tried to address the issue, I was, therefore, punished and made an example of, because at the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Facility, supervisors on the 11:00 to 7:00 are being placed on post as we speak today to eliminate overtime. These situations are going on in the Prison Systems. I can go on to tell you about inmates that were stabbed, inmates that inserted pencils into their abdomen for attention because of the lack 148 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 of security. At PICC, we have one officer to two housing areas on the 11:00 to 7:00 shift, meaning that they have to wake up courts on both units. Each unit has a census of 100. So that means that they have to wake up, let's say, on one 9 unit, leave them unattended, go to the 10 other unit and wake up the other 25.

11 There's no rovers on the floor, meaning 12 no officers on the outside of that where 13 if something happens, that officer has to 14 fend for themselves. And they give us a 15 can of pepper spray and call it help. 16 Okay? This is what's going on in the 17 Prison System today. 18 I can go on and on with 19 stories. Right now I'm assigned as a 20 correctional officer due to my demotion 21 at RCF, where we had two officers 22 assaulted on the unit. There were no 23 rovers assigned to that area at this 24 particular time, so there was never a 25 response team called. If it wasn't for 149 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 another inmate who intervened and helped the officers, them officers could have been hurt severely. So these are the situations going on. At PICC, the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Facility, when I was a supervisor over there, the inmates were able to kick their doors open whenever they became irate. The doors do not close properly. They're so old that the Prison System -- in order for them to replace them, it will cost the budget hundreds of dollars, so in turn, they know that this is happening, but they continue to allow it to happen. The inmates become irate over there, they kick their doors open and they assault the officers or go after another inmate in which they're looking to hurt because of a personal vendetta that had took place earlier in the day. That's my closing statement, but I just want to thank you for the opportunity to allow us to address these 150 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 issues, and we're praying that we do get some help in the Prison System. )

Thank you very much. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. My name is Rochelle Reddy. I'm a union delegate assigned to RCF.

Go ahead, ma'am.

Our concerns at RCF is that inmates are being housed in unsecured areas. They're being housed in --

What's RCF?

Riverside Correctional Facility.

Where is that?

Is that for the women?

Yes, it is. 151 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 They're being housed in the multi-purpose areas. The multi-purpose areas, you can't lock them in because there's no bathroom facilities. So the doors are being unsecured on the 11:00 to 7:00 shift where the doors are not supposed to be -- no doors are supposed to be open. And we have like on the Mental Health Unit 128 females assigned to the Mental Health Unit with two officers. Those women are on heavy medication, and me myself, I think it should be three officers assigned to that unit, the Mental Health Unit. And the assaults on the officers have increased. The month of October six officers at RCF was assaulted by inmates. And they're cutting posts. We have a corridor post that's supposed to be manned. The corridor on the second floor, an inmate attempted to escape from RCF. Had the corridor officer not been there that day, she would have got out. 152 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 That post is now closed, shut down. We had a perimeter patrol. That was completely cut out. Our visiting driver is transporting civilians and inmates in the same vehicle, transporting inmates from and to work in the same vehicle that he's transporting civilians. Contraband can be left in the vehicle. Anything could be left there for the inmates to bring back in the jail. (Applause.)

A lot of the acronyms that you're using, you assume that we know. So you have to speak to the full title or the full name of what you're talking about. Okay?

Contraband is anything that's --

Well, we know contraband. We know that.

For example, when you talk about transport visitors and inmates, you're assuming 153 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 that we know what that system is. So we just need a little more clarity. I've been there, so I've seen this van that takes people over to the women's prison, but if I had not seen that for myself, I would not know what you were talking about. So sometimes when people -- police people do the same thing. They'll start talking about -- they'll describe what they do in the little shortcuts, but that doesn't mean we know what they are. So I just want you to know that sometimes you got to be a little bit more specific if you really want us to understand.

Okay.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. My name is Latoya Lockett. I work for ASD, Alternative and Special Detention.

Tell us what that is.

Alternative and 154 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Special Detention.

Oh, I'm sorry. Work release?

Yes. It's also work release as well. I'm also a shop steward there, which we have different satellites to the Alternative and Special Detention area. One area that we have, it's not work release. We do have the 600 University Building. It is work release. And we also have work release that is on State Road, because they are sex offenders, and they're not allowed to be off of State Road premises. We have an area that's the Central Unit area that houses 64 inmates, is the max. It's up to 92. We have inmates in the hallway areas where officers have to walk down to make tours to count their areas, and you're face to face with an inmate while you're counting. It's also a fire hazard. If 155 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 you need to get out if there is a fire, God willing, hope you make it. Because the way the inmates are stationed, the beds are in the hallway on each side, which leaves no more than -- not even a foot long to walk down. Also, there is only two officers assigned to that area. 11:00 to 7:00 shift they made it one officer assigned to that area, which in turn they also have to wake up courts, and there's no way to secure these inmates at all, no 14 time of day, 24 hours a day. We also have work release inmates that go out every day and come back. They're being housed with general population inmates in the same areas. They have different things that they're allowed to bring back, because they are work release inmates, and the inmates on the outside are also getting those things as well, because they are being housed with them, and they are not allowed to have. 156 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 There's been areas opened up. There's trailers. They have female inmates in there, 135 total, with two officers to man the trailers. So if you need a response over to one of those trailers, the officers wouldn't get them, because there's no way of communication. And they're being housed on Torresdale Avenue, which is off of State Road, and there's no other jails around or close by that you can have to respond to that area. When asked if another officer could be placed there, they said it wasn't in the budget. We also still have posts today that's not being manned, and they're opening up areas that's called receiving room areas, where inmates are to be changed and strip-searched, and they have no officers there. So the inmates are just in the area alone until they pull an officer from another area to search the inmates. So meanwhile, if the inmates do have something that they are supposed to 157 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 have, they can stash it anywhere in there until the officer gets there. Again, I just want to say thank you for allowing us this opportunity to speak out. Thank you.

Thank you very much. (Applause.)

Good morning. My name is Lisa Shelton. I am the treasurer of Local 159 and I'm also an officer and I've been an officer for years. I'd 14 like to thank you, Madam Chairwoman 15 Tasco, the other members of the Council, 16 for allowing us to speak. For years, 17 officers have been faces. The job that 18 we do has gone without recognition, and I 19 would truly like to thank you. 20 Officers that are assigned to units are then detailed to other areas. They're detailed to take medical trips. They're detailed to take inmates to Parole Board hearings and other places. When an officer is removed, the 158 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 officer is not replaced. Therefore, the area where the officer was detailed from is now put in restricted movement, as they like to call it, but it's really lockdown. During restrictive movement, there is the least amount of inmates that you can allow out. Remember, it's one officer on the block, and at PICC, the blocks can hold up to 100 inmates. So you pull one officer, you're leaving another officer with inmates that could be up to 100. So they want all the normal activities to go on, showers, phone calls. This is what they want to call restrictive movement. You can call it restrictive movement, but ask the inmates, they're locked in. It's the same difference. Even though officers are hired -- and I work the 11:00 to 7:00 shift -- officers may get hired, say, okay, you hire for eight. They may hire eight people. When daywork comes and they tell them, Go home, go home. They 159 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 may keep three. So, therefore, there's a lack of five officers. What happened to that complement? Five officers -- a total of eight were hired, but only three were used. So that means there's five areas that there won't be any officers in. Safety is surely compromised. It is at PICC that we had an inmate who was killed by another inmate. This inmate was stabbed and killed and died, and I know everyone read it in the paper. During the months of August through September, there has been a stabbing almost every week. Not just in one housing area, housing areas all throughout the institution. This is not security. If it is, I would really like to see what security looks like then. Mr. King stated that the prison is more secure. How can it be more secure? There may be a total of 1,767 officers, but all officers are not inside of the institution, and I did hear you 160 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 ask that. Officers are assigned to trips, officers are in the administration area, officers are in the rec room, officers are in the Office of Professional Compliance, officers are in the Transportation Unit. These officers are assigned to take inmates to different areas, to take them out on a medical trip. In several of the areas -- there are other several areas where they are, as opposed to the bike patrol. The number may be 1,767, but if they are not all inside of the institution providing security, that is not the true numbers. Again, posts are being cut. Officers are being pulled, and there is no, as we would call, rover officers to take and to cover. I'm going to use an example. On church on Sunday, they have church service, so the area for the Program Center is Monday through Friday. Therefore, they take an officer off of the Housing Unit, detail them to the 161 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Program Center for church. The area where the officer came, that other officer is now left by themselves on the unit. So what do they do? They call it restrictive movement and they lock them in, but it's still locked in. The inmates are hostile. They're tired of being locked in. All of them are not able to take showers, nor even something as simple as a phone call to call their family to make them feel better. I believe that the complement for -- especially because I work at PICC, that number should go up. The complement at night is and on the weekends it's 18 19.

That leaves two officers working 19 three housing units. Each housing unit 20 can hold up to 100 inmates. That is 300 21 inmates to two officers. Then in another area you have one officer assigned to cover two housing areas, which is 200 inmates. During Monday through Friday, 162 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 we have courts. Officers have to go from one unit to the other to wake up courts, and I want to say all -- most of the time they are -- the cells are double. So if I have five courts, I have to open up five courts, but really that's ten inmates. That officer has to leave that area, go to another area, open up how many courts and clinics are on that area, then leave and go back. So it's twice as many inmates being opened. There might be five listed for the court list, but everybody has a cell list, so you can double that. Yes, the Commissioner and the Managing Director has stated several crime statistics and other prison population statistics, but in the meantime, officers are being assaulted and inmates are being killed. How many lives will it take before some real solutions are enacted? And at PICC, we had one officer who put in a memo to the warden stating, 163 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 These locks are not secure. As was stated, inmates can kick the door open. Warden Adams said to the officer, Sounds like you're scared. The next week, that officer was transferred somewhere else. We had a vehicle, what they would call Post 13, in case someone escapes or in case something is happening. The officer was in the vehicle to ride around. That officer no 12 longer has a vehicle. You are given a weapon and are told to walk around. So you're walking at night, even at night during all three shifts. You're out there with a weapon in your hand and a walkie-talkie, and I believe it's real hard to shoot and watch and see when it's dark at night and you have a walkie-talkie in one hand and a six-shooter in the other. And everybody knows most people carrying at least something that's automatic and it has more bullets than six. Part of our job is to protect 164 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 the civil rights of the inmates. With the lack of officers and the breaches in security, we are unable to protect their civil rights. So as the Commissioner of prisons and everyone else, you are responsible for the civil rights of the inmates. Their rights are being violated, because they are not in decent and humane areas. They're sleeping in areas that was set up to just sit there and have a meeting. These areas don't have bathrooms. They don't have showers. They go from one area to the other like vagabonds. This is a breach of security. Officers are being put in jeopardy every day, and I can say for myself, I am an officer and I've been an officer for years. My husband is on 20 his way out, and this is the worst that we have seen it. He has over 32 years in the system. And also, our daughter, when you look at this on any given day when they have a response, as the officer said, you can have a response at one 165 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 institution and what happens? They had a response at CFCF, Curran-Fromhold Correctional Center. They had a stabbing. When officers went from all the areas over to respond to that area, then they had a stabbing at the Detention Center. So not only do the officers know we're working short, the inmates also know that we're working short and that we're working with one officer on two housing areas at night. )

I'd like to thank you, and I really wish something would come of it and not just rhetoric, not just numbers and statistics that they're bringing. We are the officers that are on the front line every day. We put our lives in jeopardy. (Applause.)

We thank you very much. Don't go away, because I have some questions from some of the testimony. I guess in the end, what is 166 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 it that -- what are we looking for? I can drawn my own conclusion, but what are we looking for here?

We're looking for --

Speak into the microphone. Identify yourself. Each time you speak, you have to identify yourself for the record so the stenographer can record your words to you, your testimony to you.

My name Lorenzo North, President of Local 159, District Council 33. We're looking for the administration, the prison administration, to provide the correct staff in every institution so we can secure the prison, not only for the inmates, for us and other support staff. This is not happening. We have housing areas locked down. But the Commissioner testified that you have more inmates coming in, but he cutting more officers, 167 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 and he won't -- the jail is the one normal activities. You can't do it. That's where the inmates get stabbed, that's where the inmates get raped, and that's where the inmates get killed, but he don't seem to understand that.

Well, maybe he understands it. He may not be in control of that. I'm not taking up for the Commissioner, but he has an Administration he has to deal with, but that's a whole other story. Let me ask you another question. Have you had the opportunity to discuss this with the Commissioner?

Yes.

And the response?

Every time we talk to the Commissioner, we have to threaten legal action for him to take action. We have the lawyer right here. The legal action we was threatening to take was, when he had the inmates at CFCF 168 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 in the dayroom area. These inmates -- they had ten beds in the dayroom area. These inmates cannot be secure at night, plus they're in the same area where the other inmates have to watch TV and stuff.

What would be an adequate complement of officers that you think are required to cover the system?

Each jail has a certain amount of officers that are supposed to cover the posts, mandatory posts. Mandatory post is a post that must be covered in order for the jail to run safely. Housing areas must be covered. Quarters must be covered. Church areas must be covered. You have people in official visits and visits that must be covered. And you have more posts. He's not covering these posts. We have housing areas that he's trying to -- he cut one officer off of housing area, but he still want the housing area to run the restrictive 169 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 movement. Restrictive movement is just a way to keep the inmates locked in, but let three inmates out of the cell at a time to make phone calls and showers. The inmates are getting tired of lockdown. They're supposed to come out in the morning at 7:30 and then go down 10:30 for lunch for the 7:00 to 3:00 shift. They come back out. For 3:00 to 11:00 shift, they go down 6 o'clock for count, for lunch, and they're supposed to come back out after the officer gets finished eating lunch. And then they go down at 10:30 at night, 10:45. These inmates are not coming out at all sometimes. They're not coming out at all in some areas, because you don't have the right amount of officers there to run activities.

Let me ask you a question about the young lady who was the supervisor, Ms. Zayas, who was demoted. What is her remedy and what is her appeal on the action taken against 170 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 her?

Claiborne Newlin. I'm the attorney for Local 159. Her remedy is a Civil Service Commission appeal or a grievance through the grievance procedure.

Has that taken place?

It's in process.

How long does it take to grieve?

It can take up to two to three years to get a resolution.

In the meantime, she's demoted?

Hi. Jennifer Zayas, secretary for Local 159, also an officer, once a supervisor, for the Prison System. This took place in December of 2005. I've been given a hearing date. Ever since then, the Commissioner continues to cancel my date. They keep postponing it, postponing it, postponing 171 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 it. When I asked what's the reason, I get, Somebody is on vacation, he had a meeting, something came up. Here, I was suspended days without pay and 6 demoted, made ridicule of because I was 7 questioning the security of the 8 institution, yet I can't get my civil 9 service hearing in a timely fashion. 10 It's been a year almost. We're now in 11 November of 2006. 12

Is the 13 civil service the City Civil Service 14 Commission? 15

Yes. 16

So that's the 17 reason why I haven't had a hearing. 18

Have you 19 contacted your Councilperson? 20

No, ma'am. 21

You should 22 do that. You should do that. 23

Okay. 24

All right? 25 Do you have any questions, 172 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Councilwoman Miller?

I have questions, and, unfortunately, after I ask these questions, I have to leave to prepare for my hearings tomorrow with a lot of the same folks here, tomorrow afternoon. Let me ask you this: When you talk about correct level of staffing, I heard someone in their testimony mention that there's an issue with people calling out sick. I think you said that, that correctional officers -- I think you said I know you have a problem with people calling out sick.

Ms. Jones.

Oh, okay. So is there a problem with correctional officers calling out sick? And, if so, I think years ago I read in the paper that that's one of the reasons why CO's made a lot of overtime. And how does all that fit into this?

We have officers 173 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 call out sick, but these officers is under a whole lot of stress. If you come to work every day and the inmates say he's going to kill you, right, they expect that, but when you have the prison administration on your back for every little thing. People are getting five days off for making a mistake in the count. They may miscount one time. They give them days off. They got -- it's stress. It's stress. They're not getting no support from the administration. Correctional officers know their job. They know what they're supposed to do in the prison. They're not scared to do it, and they do it, but when you have the prison administration not supporting their staff, then that brings on stress, too. They have stress from both levels, from administration and the inmates. They expect it from the inmates, but not the administration.

Are you 174 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 allowed to receive overtime pay? What is the policy right now as it relates to overtime?

Tanya M. Jones, Detention Center, shop steward. Yes. They opened up the doors for us to have overtime again now, for the moment. As far as the sick situation, yes, you do have, as Mr. North said, you do have a lot of officers calling out sick. We don't have stress days. The person that we're supposed to contact if you are under stress is a supervisor, which means when you go to them, your information is going right to administration. And the way we feel is, administration don't care anything about us, not at all. We have administration coming with threats, Oh, I'm going to get your job, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that. Like we said, it's expected of the inmates to threaten us, but for you to have the people that you 175 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 work under constantly threatening you, saying you're going to get days, I'm taking people's job, you have no choice but to be stressed. No choice. And I'm an officer that does a lot of overtime, but you have people that don't want to be there and you have a Commissioner that's blocking people from moving outside of the jails. A lot of people are running from the jails just because administration is constantly on our back, taking your jobs. You walk in work today and you're wondering, Well, what are they going to come at with me today? What's the threat for the day? What am I going to get written up for today? A lot of things are covered up that they do, but it's do as I say, not as I do.

Yes.

Lorenzo North, President of Local 159, District Council 33. When she said the Commissioner 176 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 is blocking people from going, take, for instance, the Sheriff Department. People is going to the Sheriff Department and he's telling the people they have to resign to go to the Sheriff Department. The people want to get out of there. They're resigning. They're going. They're getting out of there. And we had a certain amount of people resign to go to the Sheriff Department. We have people --

Well, do you have to resign or can you transfer?

You're supposed to transfer.

You're supposed to transfer, but he's blocking it.

Yeah. He stopped people from going, so they had to resign and then go. And that's what they're doing, they're resigning.

Just as fast as they're coming in, they're going out. 177 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 That's why the numbers are not right.

You have people going to the Police Department and you have people retiring early to get away from this problem.

I think Councilwoman Miller asked about the 150 individuals of correction officers who had left, and the Commissioner did not agree with that statement. On what do you base your charge?

The Commissioner, he said that you have people going to the Sheriff Department. He didn't mention about the retirees, the people that was terminated for no reason at all. And some of them got their job back when they went to Civil Service. People was on 32's, disability.

So you're saying overall in that period of time 150 people left?

I believe so. I believe 150 people left within this year. 178 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711

Within this year?

Yeah.

Do you believe they have been replaced?

Not all of them.

Not all?

Because we got -- a class of 32 is supposed to come in Monday. Within the next month, you might have 32 leave. If they have somewhere to go, they're going to go. The Police Department might call people. They're going to go. And he don't replace them. You got correction officers that work in the warden's office doing work of another bargaining unit. They should be in the jail. The warden can hire secretaries, but when she talk about favoritism, that's where the favoritism thing coming at. They won't pick officers to work in their office that wears a size 7 pants, you know. That's what's going on.

I think 179 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 she said it. You might have eight officers but end up with three, something happens with the other five?

Yes. Lisa Shelton. You may have eight officers from 7:00 to 3:00 shift call out, so, therefore, the 11:00 to 7:00 sergeant will then hire eight people to cover how many officers call out. When daywork comes and when the 7:00 to 3:00 shift comes in, the sergeant looks over their roster. Even though they know they have at least eight spots because eight officers called out that should have been there, the sergeant say, Oh, I don't need you, I don't need you. They say, yes, it's overtime, but they're not spending the overtime. And especially at PICC, there's days they cut the overtime. How do you hire for eight officers that definitely called out because they have their sick call, then you hire eight officers, but you tell those eight 180 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 officers or out of that eight, you tell five, You can go home, I don't need you? They were needed.

When you say "hire," these are officers who you asked to work overtime?

Right, officers that the supervisor on the 11:00 to 7:00, once they received a sick call from the daywork officer, they say, Okay, someone from daywork called out, I need you, you want to work? Some days you have people that volunteer, then other days you have to do what they call hook, and hook is four hours. So somehow or another, how many officers call out, that is the same amount of officers they're supposed to get through just officers volunteering or by the hook. So now when daywork comes and they say even though eight were either a total combination of hired or hooked, I don't need all of you, go home. That's saving overtime. That means that somewhere some post is going to be 181 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 uncovered. That means they're going to make the job of two officers then becomes the job of one officer. Oh, you have clinic trips? Well, one officer take out inmates instead of two officers taking 7 out 15 inmates to the clinic. That's how 8 they're cutting money. That's how 9 they're cutting posts. You have the Post 10 13? Oh, you don't need a vehicle, just 11 take a walk, or forget about the detail 12 officer. Like some institutions call it 13 detail, some institutions call it rover. 14 So if an emergency trip comes up, if 15 Officer North and myself were assigned on a unit, if an emergency trip comes up, they have no detail or no rovers. That means they're pulling someone off the block. That means that's leaving that area short. That area then is going into a lockdown, what they want to call restrictive movement.

Yes.

Lorenzo North, President of Local 159, District Council 182 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 33.

I think she knows you by now.

The word "mandatory," right, the mandatory post I'm talking about come from the City. The City designates that, because that's what they think is needed to run the prisons safely, but they're not going by their own policy. They're not going by their own policy.

Well, let me just ask one more question and we'll ask the Commissioner to come up and kind of respond to some of this. The young lady testified about -- maybe Ms. Lockett. Are you at PICC?

ASD.

ASD, right. You talked about the women in the facility and you said they're all heavily medicated. What do you mean by that?

That was Reddy. 183 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711

Didn't you talk about that? You said it. You said the women were medicated.

No. That was her.

That was Reddy.

Now you're from?

RCF, Rochelle Reddy.

Oh, that's right. I'm sorry. You're right. I wrote it down. Go ahead. You said the women are heavily medicated. Why are they heavily medicated? Are all of them medicated?

No; just on the Hahnemann block.

Why are they medicated?

Because they're mentally ill.

So they 184 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 have heavy medication that they take for their mental illness?

Yes. And --

That's all I wanted to know. Thank you.

We have another delegate here that would like to speak.

All right. And then we're going to ask the Commissioner to come forward and respond. And then we have two other people who have been waiting so patiently to testify today, and we appreciate that. Maybe they can also shed some light on the testimony you've heard today.

Hello. My name is Anthony Durant. I'm a Detention Center delegate. We work with the mentally challenged inmates. The actual rules and regulations stipulate that we are not allowed to open any cell by ourselves. So what they're doing at the Detention Center for the male, they're putting your 185 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 partner -- the medical staff or mental health needs to see a particular inmate. You are not allowed to open that cell until your partner is present. So we go day to day fighting and struggling trying to keep our areas open and keep it staffed properly so that we can deal with the mentally challenged patients. Constantly they're saying that they're hiring, the overtime is open, but if the overtime is open and they're hiring, why are they pulling from posts? There's no reason to pull if you have enough staff to handle certain areas. Certain areas are supposed to be mandatory manned. That means there's no 18 way around it. If that person that called off is not there, someone is hired to fill that position, because that person is definitely needed. If you can't get to a person -- an inmate is stating he's having chest pains. Yes, he may be a mental patient, but he also may be a medical patient. 186 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 But now I'm in violation where I have a dilemma because if I open this door, I'm in violation, because I could be opening the door to an attack. I'm not sure what's going on. So if my partner is always there to back me up, which most of the administration has worked these areas or been in these areas but has forgotten what it's like to be on the front line. The front line, that is where these people stand at every day. We deal with what they talk about. We stand in front of and confront what they talk about and what they look at on paper and computers. Okay? This is not a game, and I tell my people constantly, correctional officers, that this is not a game. We have a job to do. But in order to do that job, we need the proper staffing to do that job. And when she says heavily medicated, that means they're given their medication. Some of the medication works, some of the medication doesn't. 187 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Some of them are behavioral problems and some of them are mental cases, where even in a mental state, they are stronger than the normal person, and they will do things to themselves, and if I can't get in that cell to help that inmate, now I'm in violation, but you're not giving me a partner to back me up to enter that cell. I have been in countless situations where inmates have slit their throats from ear to ear and I've stood there and I've held towels to their necks to keep them from dying, but on my chest there's no commendation, but should I slip and fall and one of them hangs, they will hang me also. (Applause.)

So I thank you, Council, for allowing us to stand up here and gripe and let you know what's going on behind those bars that a lot of people don't see. And for administration to know and have walked those corridors and 188 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 turned those keys and stood in those hallways where we have stood and stood in those mess halls and dealt with those inmates as we have and forget about it, what sad day is this that we are in. Thank you. (Applause.)

Commissioner, are you willing to come back to the table, please? I have just one question and then I'd like for you to -- you heard all the testimony, and I'd just like to get your take on it. One, what is the model for the relationship between the administration and the officers? Is there a model where you have -- all I've heard this afternoon is that these officers don't feel safe, protected or appreciated. There ought to be a model somewhere that we could emulate that provides a better environment for them to work in. COMMISSIONER KING: I think 189 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 that one of the goals that I set when I became Commissioner, because one of the things I did when I first started the job is walk around in all the jails, talked to officers, address roll call, and for some of the issues that were raised today like retaliation and favoritism and not being appreciated, I heard all those things and I've been trying since I started to try to effectuate some sort of change. The issues that -- first of all, I also want to say as far as retaliation goes, I don't put up with that. If there's some reason that you violated a rule, we have the procedure, you get disciplined or not, but retaliation isn't something that I put up with, and if I find out about it and there's something I can do, I do something about that. Favoritism is another thing that I don't put up with. But as I've gone around and talked to people in the 190 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 jails, how do you get rid of favoritism in the prison? I can't issue an order that says, Don't have favorites. The only thing that we can do is try to educate and train people about proper supervision and things of that nature, and that's part of the reason why we have added hours in the Training Academy, and whenever the budget allows, I send people out for that sort of a training, but it's always that give and take that goes back and forth. And I don't want to minimize anything that any of the employees have said here today in the sense of the seriousness, and you saw and heard the frustration in their voices and the fact that they do not feel appreciated. It really -- it bothers me a great deal that they don't think prison administration appreciates them, because that's not true. But it also, I think, speaks to a larger issue, and this is part of the big picture that we are trying to get 191 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 accomplished in criminal justice. Because it is true, our officers are generally unappreciated by the public, because they're behind the walls, no one sees us, no one hears about us unless something bad happens. And the bigger picture is that in the planning for criminal justice, as we talked earlier, we have to plan for the prisons. So, for example, when Speaker Perzel says he's going to hire more police, he's going to increase mandatory minimum sentences, what that means is theoretically there are going to be more arrests. Theoretically -- not theoretically. They're going to have higher bails, which means you're going to have more people in the Prison System. And if the City's position is, let's say, we're going to build more prisons, then you have to build more prisons and you have to hire more correctional officers, social workers and other people that work in prisons and jails. And traditionally in 192 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 the country, that's not how things have operated. I think we're moving to that in this City, and I would have to say -- this is a long answer to your question, but I'm getting back to it. As a model, in my travels and talking to other correctional administrators in the country, this is a common theme that you find in all prisons and jails.

Partly because as an agency, as people who work there, we do not feel appreciated, and the staff sometimes -- we probably have to continue to try and do a better job to communicate to them the reasons for our decisions, why we make those decisions so they can attempt to understand. Because there's a lot of things that I heard here today that I think were you to sit down with me and discuss some of the decisions that were made, you would understand what my thinking was and that I'm not the only one in this puzzle. So I don't think that there's a 193 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 model anywhere that we could follow, but certainly retaliation, favoritism, things like that, that's something that I don't tolerate. I don't want to hear about it, and I've done as much as I can do at this point to try and attack those problems. And, of course, if Mr. North or the union has any better ideas about how it is we can attack those problems, I am all open for it, because I want people to feel appreciated at work and I don't want them to feel like they're being attacked on all sides. But if you read some of the literature about corrections agencies, you will find that one of the biggest stresses for correctional officers is what some of the folks testified to. On the one hand, prison administration is saying, You've got to work, you've got to adapt to the challenges, et cetera, et cetera, you got to follow the rules, and they got to worry about us watching them and following the rules. And on the 194 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 other hand, they got to worry about what the inmates are doing, what the inmates are not doing and about their safety, and lots of times that's a conflict and it causes a lot of stress. So that's something that's common. I'm not aware of a model, but surely I think I've done a few things, and I'm open to suggestion about how the union and the employees think that we can do better. We actually conducted an employee survey over the summer to try and figure out what exactly people in the Prison System are feeling, what they think the issues are, and I think we got a very good response, almost 600 people. That's a good representative sample. And one of my assistants is in the process of putting that all together so we can actually have some hard facts and sit down and see what we can do to make people feel better about working there. This is a group that's 195 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 representative of some people in the prison and how they feel. There are others that feel differently, but, again, I don't want to minimize any of the things that you've heard here today. I think that what you should take away from this is that there is a level of folks that work with the prison that do feel unappreciated and that do feel they're being, the CO's especially, are being -- Watch the inmates, don't screw up. The things that you heard, those are things that they have to deal with every day.

Well, what I really also heard was that they didn't complain about -- I don't think I heard them complain about doing the work. What I heard was that the support is not there in their efforts to do their job. One, inadequate equipment, marches. I don't know what that means. If you take somebody on a march -- you don't need a march. Why are you doing that? Issues around the bike patrol. And another 196 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 issue that was concerning me was that inmates are housed in areas particularly in the back of the kitchen where they may have access to weapons, and why are all these stabbings taking place if there is a check on -- how do they get these weapons? How do the inmates get the weapons and what is the check to see if the weapons are there? Because it does open up these employees to danger, as well as to other inmates. COMMISSIONER KING: You're correct about that.

So I hear a lot of lack of security. I hear that. I hear lack of security. (Applause.)

I hear if you complain, you get demoted or you get knocked around someplace else, that you're not supposed to speak up. So I don't hear a real sense of support for the people who are raising the issue about what's happening. 197 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 I don't think they would come in here and just begin to make charges and allegations unless there was something really going on. And I know you're the Commissioner and there are other people under you who are administrators. There's got to be some way to determine from these individuals, the people who work for you, what are they doing in relationship to their workers. COMMISSIONER KING: And I just want to go back to earlier what was brought up. Everyone laughed and I saw a few people snicker when I said I gave the prison an A grade in what it does, and I do, because I realize some of the things that -- the challenges that our staff faces and the fact that we've gotten the job done that we got done this summer, last summer and the summer before. Every year we have more inmates than we had the last year. And as far as the statistics of 198 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 stabbings, one stabbing is too much, one assault is too much, but the point is, Mr. North is just incorrect on the data that's collected in regard to assaults, use of force, et cetera. He's just incorrect on those. I have the facts and figures, and he's just incorrect. As far as the staffing goes, all of us, I think, would like to see more correctional officers, but there's a process that you have to go through to do that, and I think I explained that this morning. In regard to the Sheriff's Office, because that was brought up, we had 16 people that left the prisons in this calendar year that went to the sheriff. 16, not 161. I can get you those numbers. I happen to know it was 16 or so. I happen to know the sheriff only had a budget for 16 in the relevant period, so he couldn't have taken more than that. So it's around that number. And the staffing numbers that I 199 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 reported you today, I got them from the Personnel Office at the prison. They are the numbers. They include everything. Traditionally in the prisons there are some people who come and they come to be a CO and their goal is really to be a firefighter or their goal is really to be a police officer. So those things aren't new. Those are calculated into the attrition rate. Those are calculated into the numbers that I gave you about how many people left and how many people didn't leave.

What about the transfer? Is it true that the individuals who wanted to go to the Sheriff's Office had to resign to go? Because we know it is a transfer. We get requests all the time for transfers. Never, I resigned and can you get me into the Sheriff's Office. COMMISSIONER KING: Well, the issue was in the summertime, while we were processing those 150 people, my 200 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 position was, I needed those 150 people so the jails were at a point where I felt more comfortable with what was going on. So the reason that I said that was, I needed to have the staff at the prison not go to the Sheriff's Department. And we had an agreement with the sheriff so that it wouldn't unduly affect prisons that he would only take a certain amount of people at certain times. So that, for example, with this class of 32, if the sheriff decides, Okay, I need people, 14 I graduate a class of 32, technically I'm 15 only getting a class of 16 because he 16 just took 16 of my people. And they don't recruit the people. They don't train the people. We spend, I think it's, $15,000 to train these folks. We spend money to recruit them and then they take them. So we're again in negotiation with him. Just hopefully he can like take people from our list. He doesn't recruit a list. 201 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 So my intention when I said I'm not going to grant transfers were, we needed the people there. So, therefore, if you wanted to leave, you should resign. And some of those people come back or want to come back, because they can't deal with the training that you have to -- the physical training you have to go through with the Law Department.

Is that whole process, that issue between the sheriff and the prison, is that part of the points that you all are 15 addressing? 16 COMMISSIONER KING: Actually, 17 one of the 24 points is adequate staffing 18 at the CJC and working that issue out, 19 and we were able to assist the sheriff in 20 fully staffing the CJC to expedite court 21 cases by making the inmates available to 22 leave earlier. That way, those sheriffs, 23 they come and get the inmates earlier, 24 they go to the CJC. Then they distribute the inmates throughout the building, and 202 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 then they're available to open courtrooms. So we dealt with it that way. And we also allowed some people before July, I think it was, to transfer to the Sheriff's Department. And I believe there's a meeting scheduled in a couple weeks where we're going to sit down with the Personnel Director and representatives from the Sheriff's Department and work out a new process, hopefully where he's recruiting actually from the CO list for new deputy sheriffs as opposed to taking veteran CO's unless -- I mean, that would be his primary focus. So actually that is part of one of the points, staffing at the 19 CJC and sheriffs. 20 Now, there was one other 21 question that you had about the kitchen 22 at the Detention Center. 23

Yes. 24 Someone stated that the inmates were in an area, the kitchen area, where they 203 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 could have access to utensils that could be used as weapons. COMMISSIONER KING: When we decided to open I Dorm, that was probably last fall, something like that, because we were anticipating we'd have more inmates and we were looking for space to convert. We had a garment shop in there. We removed the garment shop. We retrofitted that area with showers and toilets, et cetera, and my initial inclination was to have options inmates over there. Those are inmates who are in an intensive drug treatment program. And that was the deal because of the location of the area, et cetera. Then things speeded up over the summer. I think it was in June, the end of June, when things were -- I was becoming more concerned with things that were going on at the prison. We had to open it very quickly. And the warden's feeling was that it would be good to have the kitchen workers in I Dorm, because 204 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 the kitchen workers are normally, in many instances, responsible for taking a lot of that contraband that they have access to in the kitchen and distributing it throughout the jail. And the warden thought it a better decision to have the kitchen workers in I Dorm. That way, they're right there at the kitchen, and to the extent they're able to sneak whatever it is they sneak out of the kitchen, it would be limited to I Dorm as opposed to having it spread out over the jail. So that was the thinking, the warden's thinking there. Everybody else in the chain of command thought that was a good idea.

Well, what is the security around kitchen help having access to the utensils? Is there a search when they leave? COMMISSIONER KING: Everybody is supposed to be searched when you leave --

But are 205 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 they being searched? COMMISSIONER KING: As far as I know, they are, but that all depends on the ability of the staff to get that accomplished in the --

Do you have an adequate enough number of people that you need at that prison? COMMISSIONER KING: Do I have adequate enough people?

If you had an ideal complement that you could get, what would you ask for? COMMISSIONER KING: I would ask for a bit more than I have.

What would you ask for? COMMISSIONER KING: I would ask for -- I would like to be staffed up to what the Post Plan is.

I don't know anything about that. COMMISSIONER KING: It's about 147 people above what we normally hire. 206 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 That's what I would like. So we are allowed to hire right now for attrition. I would like to be able to hire for attrition plus 147, and that would take us up to our Post Plan.

What's the Post Plan? COMMISSIONER KING: The Post Plan has been referred to by others in the audience. Every jail has a plan.

Oh, that's right. You have to have a mandatory posting. COMMISSIONER KING: Posts. Whatever position that the CO has in that facility to -- whatever function is being carried out, whether it's cashier, center control, watching the inmates, medication lines, whatever it is. So, I mean, as the Managing Director and I testified this morning, we've got the 32 coming on line. We have the 60 coming on line, and we're going to be sitting down with the Administration again and going through 207 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 and trying to figure out how we can get those extra people on board, because the fact is -- and I know no one wants to hear this -- it is a money issue, and the City has to decide where it's going to allocate its budget dollars. If I go in and say, I need all those officers and we're spending -- I think we're going to spend $17 million in overtime, I think, something like that, in the next fiscal year, and I say I want 142 officers extra, that's going to be --

So if you got the 142 officers extra, wouldn't that cut down on the need for overtime? COMMISSIONER KING: Yes. That's part of the discussion that we're going to be having with the Administration.

So you've cost out the extra 142 officers in comparison to the overtime cost? COMMISSIONER KING: Correct. So, in other words, the way we're going 208 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 to approach this -- and we did it once before when we opened RCF -- if the prisons, for example -- when we went in July and we went from $650,000 to $700,000 a pay period to 850,000, 900,000, a million dollars a pay period, we have to figure out what that overtime benchmark is, and then the 147 or 2 that we get, we're going to have to reduce overtime by a certain amount to get those officers. That's the way it would have to work.

Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you all very much. We appreciate your testimony. We do revisit this again during the budget time when the Commissioner submits his budget to the Council. Again, we will follow through on what's happened since this time to see where we are with your efforts. We'll see what you ask for. Yes. COMMISSIONER KING: I just want 209 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 to say one more thing. I mean, I think that all of this is good. I want to thank you for having the hearing. I want to thank you for having the correctional officers down here. I'm sure if you had the social workers down here, they'd have a lot of other things to tell you. But I think it speaks to the point. And I get back to the points that you think are 11 see-through, but they're not, they're 12 there. We have to get behind those 24 13 points and we have to think as we move 14 forward in the City that we have to have 15 a comprehensive plan for the entire 16 criminal justice system when we deal with 17 arresting people, putting them in jail, 18 who should be there, who shouldn't and, 19 most importantly, I think what are we 20 going to do with the ex-offenders when 21 they're discharged back on the street. 22 Are we going to have jobs, are we going 23 to have housing, or are we going to 24 discriminate against them so they can come back again. 210 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711

Well, I think we agree with you on all of that. Certainly there has to be a comprehensive plan. Councilwoman Miller will be having a hearing tomorrow to talk about the issue of employment, how ex-offenders are discriminated against, how we can control that or change that. So we all care about what's going on, and I think the dialogue was good today. Certainly I have some concern, and we'll be following up with you about some of the issues that have been raised. I would just suggest that you would maybe interact a little more with the leadership of the union to talk to them about what's going on and try and come to some resolution on some of the issues. I mean, I don't know about labor/administration kind of things, but it doesn't hurt to talk. So you heard today their frustration. I hear it. I hear their passion about what they do. I 211 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 don't get a sense that they don't want to do this job, that they do want to do the job. And you're the head. You might not know what's going on down at each of these centers. You don't know. COMMISSIONER KING: I've heard.

And sometimes things do go on in the dark of the night and the heat of the day you need to find out about and do something about. Now, this hearing is not over because I have a couple more people to testify, and ya'll might want to stay and listen to them. And I thank them for being patient, but I thought this was important to get this here today. Not that you're not important, too, but you're the people who help us once we get out of this mess. So we thank you for coming, thank you for testifying. We hope you will stay to hear their testimony. Thank you so much. Thank you, Commissioner. 212 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 COMMISSIONER KING: Thank you.

I really, really appreciate your staying to hear the testimony, because maybe through all of this, you can be helpful to find some resolution to some of the issues that have been raised here today, and certainly as Council as legislative oversight for the prison, we need to have recommendations and suggestions that we might be able to push in terms of policy for the prison.

I found it very interesting. I have no problem at all.

Do you want to identify yourself, please.

Yes. My name is Angus Love. I'm the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project and co-counsel in the Bowers versus City of Philadelphia litigation currently pending before Judge Barclay Surrick in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of 213 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Pennsylvania. The Institutional Law Project --

Excuse me a moment, please. Could we ask you all to kind of tone it down. If you're going to talk, could you please go outside. We invite you to come back, but if you're going to have a conversation, we ask -- because it's distracting. Yes.

My organization is part of the Legal Aid Network and we provide free civil legal assistance to institutionalized people in Pennsylvania. I'd like to thank Madam Chairwoman Tasco for sponsoring Resolution 060711 and holding these hearings today, which I think is a wonderful opportunity in the true spirit of democracy of trying to air these issues out and finding out where the problems are and working towards 214 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 solutions. I'd like to discuss the recent history of litigation surrounding the Philadelphia Prison System, talk a little bit about the Bowers case and the future implications. Overcrowding in the Philadelphia Prison System has been a constant theme for the past 35 years. Twenty-five of those years the system has been under court oversight. The three-judge Jackson Court of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, the result of the Jackson versus Hendricks case started in 1971. This case dealt mainly with the conditions of confinement within the Prison System. On the federal side, the Harris versus City of Philadelphia litigation began in 1982, was presided over by Judge Norma Shapiro and dealt mainly with the overcrowding issue. In 1995, the Prison Litigation Reform Act was enacted to address 215 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 frivolous lawsuits and court oversight of prison conditions. Its termination provisions resulted in the end of both the Jackson and Harris cases in 2000 and 2001 respectively. Both cases had found repeated and specific findings of unconstitutional conditions, a progression of consent decrees, including a population cap, fines and release of inmates. The theme of the PLRA was to return control of our nation's prisons and jails to prison administrators. The final decrees in both cases included agreements to construct a new women's detention facility, Riverside, the Cambria Correctional Center, prohibition on triple celling, discontinued use of dayrooms and annex areas in the Detention Center and the four-person limit on multi-occupancy rooms at CFCF. At that time, the Philadelphia Prison System population was approximately 7,000 inmates. The Court also expressed concern that without judicial oversight, 216 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 populations would increase beyond physical capacity. In the five years since the termination of these two cases, the population has risen to 8,900 in June of 2006, 1,000 over rated capacity. To house these numbers, the Prison System has resorted to triple celling in House of Corrections, placed 250 inmates in dorm areas in the Detention Center meant to hold 192, resorted to housing inmates in common space, recreation areas and reopened a dormitory in Holmesburg Prison which had been closed in 1995. Due to staff shortages, they have also resorted to lockdowns and restricted movements in each of the facilities, which we've heard extensively from the people in the trenches. These practices have made conditions more intolerable as they deprive inmates of recreation, movement, vocational and educational services. It also increases the dangers to staff and inmates as tensions increase and disputes 217 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 arise. Again, I reiterate in testimony from the line staff of the correctional officers. Conditions came to a head this past summer as the Prison System closed its doors to new intakes on June 24, 2006 under orders from Commissioner King. This created an even more intolerable condition at the various police district lock-ups and at the Round House. Conditions typical of third world countries prevailed at all of these facilities as well as the Intake Unit at CFCF. Normally arrestees are held in the police lock-ups for two to four hours after they've been arraigned. This past summer they were held up to seven days in cells not designed for extended or overcrowded usage.

Shortly after the Bowers litigation was filed, lead counsel David Rudovsky, who was the lead counsel in the Jackson case, and co-counsel Dave Richman 218 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 was the lead counsel in the Harris case, the first witness that we called was Lee Bowers. Mr. Bowers was a working man from the Northeast who had never been to prison. m. He was shocked to find himself in a 26-by-14-foot cell with 30 other people. He was soon moved to a smaller cell, 9 by 13 and a half feet, and other similarly sized cells in the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility Intake Unit. Temperatures hovered between 90 and 100 degrees. He counted 30 people in these smaller cells, with people standing and sitting. He was denied a blanket, a bed, a mattress, clothes, towels, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap and warm water. He slept on a concrete floor under a metal bench. He slept in a coveted spot, because no one 219 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 could step on him with his legs tucked under him under the metal bench. He thought he had developed a muscle cramp, which turned out to be a blood clot, requiring a four-day stay in Nazareth Hospital approximately one week later. He got a shower late Sunday evening and was given a chance to make a telephone call, as his family had no idea where he was. There were 60 people in front of him in the line. He never got to use the phone. He was released a short time later on Monday morning. He is now on blood-thinning medication for the clot. Plaintiff's additional fact witnesses offered similar accounts to their lengthy stays at various police lock-ups and the Philadelphia Prisons. Their testimony indicated that 30 to 35 inmates were held in intake cells measuring 9 by 13 feet. Cells were so crowded, only a fortunate few could sit or lie down on a concrete floor. There 220 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 were no mattresses, sheets, blankets, towels, pillows, wash cloths, toothbrush, soap or clean clothes. Temperatures hovered around 100 degrees. The lucky few slept on the concrete floor, often near a toilet or under a metal bench. Cold pack meals three times a day were the only nourishment. No medical care was offered, no recreation, no access to telephones or legal assistance. Fights broke out, toilets overflowed, trash accumulated, smells were overwhelming. Some inmates spent up to six days under these conditions before being processed, screened, showered and given clean clothes. Inmates suffered from dehydration, constipation, blood clots, asthma attacks, exposure to infectious diseases, infected wounds, bruises and denial of necessary medications for AIDS, Parkinson's disease. Currently, the Philadelphia Prison System spends $200 million a year. Five million dollars is spent on housing 221 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 100 inmates in the Monmouth County Prison in New Jersey. No plans are in the offing for new construction. Currently, facilities are bursting at the seams. Costs of further relocation to facilities outside of Philadelphia is prohibitive. District Attorney Abraham's intervention into the Bowers case has enhanced the adversarial nature of the proceedings. Prison officials have tried mightily to move the problem to more discreet locations with little success. The City's 24-point plan offers little hope, and I note that it was revised after we filed the litigation in August of this year. To date, only three of the 19 recommendations have been given serious 20 consideration. Some ask already 21 overburdened court personnel to take on 22 more responsibility without additional 23 staff or compensation. Others require 24 the cooperation of state and federal authorities, who haven't been inclined to 222 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 address these concerns in the past. Additional export of inmates to other facilities is cost prohibitive.

And I did a quick math on the amount of money it would cost if we sent all the inmates to facilities such as Monmouth and it would mean an extra $250 million for the system. Proposed legislation in Harrisburg to move individuals to state facilities after one year instead of two doesn't appear to be going anywhere, and it will meet with fierce opposition from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections that has its own problems. Other recommendations have been tried time and again without success. This Council should demand leadership from Mayor Street to address the long-term problems underlying this litigation to ensure that there isn't another 30-year legal war in the making. If Fydor Dostoevsky's oft quoted statement that a true measure of our 223 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 civilization is how we treat the least fortunate, then we are all sorely lacking. Thank you.

Thank you very much. In your opinion, was the reemergence of the prison overcrowding issue predictable?

Yes.

All right. So from the prior lawsuit, what reforms have and have not been implemented?

Well, as was testified, the population is going up four to six percent per year. Initially when the lawsuits ended, there was a construction program that enabled them to get by the first few years, but now that's been filled to the seams and there's no more construction and there hasn't been any reform. So it's just a problem that was going to come about sooner or later. 224 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711

Well, as the Commissioner and some of the others testified about the societal problems that we have with more and more people going into the criminal justice system, we're trying to address that issue on the outside dealing with young people and behavior issues and trying to divert them away from the career of crime. That's long term. In the meantime, we have this other side where they do get into the criminal justice system. So I don't know if there's a magic bullet, but I appreciate your testimony today.

Well, I just would say that I agree with Commissioner King, that building our way out of the crisis is not the solution. It just puts more people in and probably increases crime in the long run. I think we have to look seriously at the sentencing practices, and unfortunately, they do go well beyond the City of Philadelphia. But the demographics show that population in 225 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Philadelphia has dropped. Crime has dropped, yet the prison population increases, and we have to look hard at these issues and come up with some solutions.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. DiMascio. You want to identify? MR. DiMASCIO: Yes. Good afternoon, Councilwoman, and thank you. My name is Bill DiMascio. I'm Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Prison Society. I represent an organization whose members visit all state prisons and county jails throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and we've been doing that for more than two centuries now. Having heard testimony here today -- let me just start by saying I believe my testimony will take a little different track. There's a bit of a different perspective, and I hope it's one that is helpful to this Committee. But for the past 25 years or 226 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 so, this nation has been focusing its crime-fighting strategies around punishment. We've passed laws that created crimes where they didn't exist before. We've made prison sentences longer, and we weakened authority of judges to ensure that punishments come close to fitting the crimes. We took these steps and others in the name of public safety, yet studies have shown repeatedly that the public doesn't really feel any safer. And I think we can see perhaps by the numbers. As our population in the City has gone down, our population inside the prison is going up. All the while, we made little progress in alleviating the problems that generate criminal activity, and as a result, we've been forced to spend increasingly large amounts of our precious tax dollars to build and to staff our jails. This, while our neighborhoods deteriorate, public schools 227 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 languish, social services diminish and our economic base erodes. Clearly, it's time for us to think our overall approach to criminal justice. And on behalf of the Prison Society, I want to thank you for the opportunity to be here and to applaud City Council especially for having this Committee, the Committee on Public Health and Human Services, involved in addressing this important and complex problem. It's no coincidence that overcrowding in the Philadelphia prisons has happened at the same time that we're having such a spike in violent crime in our City. Our "lock them up and throw away the key" attitude projects a violent and at times unthinking response to crime, one that ignores the underlying causes of crime. As a result, prison sentences have become less of a deterrent and in some ways more of an encourager of street crime. 228 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Contrary to popular opinion, prison is not the solution to the growing crime problem. In fact, incarceration may very well be one of the leading contributors to violence in our communities. And I say that because overcrowding in prisons exacerbates the problems still further. Prisons are warehouses that effectively incapacitate violent offenders, but do little to rehabilitate them or the large number of non-violent inmates who return to our communities bearing the stigma of ex-offenders and lacking up-to-date job skills to really succeed in their reentry. With overcrowding and prison conditions taxed beyond capacity, the returning offenders are even less equipped and often more frustrated when they come home. For us to effectively address the security and overcrowding issues at the prison and get off of this merry-go-round that has us spending 229 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 inordinate amounts of tax dollars to build new and rent old cell space, which gets filled just as soon as it comes on line, we need to address the root causes of crime. These include the abject poverty that greets so many Philadelphians at a time when corporations in this country are making obscene profits, the collapse of family structures, the absence of meaningful jobs that pay living wages, the use of alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders, and the paucity of hope for a better future. In addition, I believe we need to stop demonizing people if we want them to stop acting like demons.

The prison experience today warehouses inmates, but teaches them little in the way of social and vocational skills needed to succeed when they get out. Recidivism rates tell the tragic tale of where these policies lead. Unfortunately, overcrowding 230 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 impacts all of us. We're not talking about prisoners being uncomfortable. We're talking about them and the staff that work with them existing in constant danger, as we've already heard here today, about three men in a cell barely big enough for one, about two toilets for 80 people, about four and five-day stays in standing-room-only holding pens. These are the conditions that precede the eventual release of our brothers and sons, our mothers and daughters and people who are finding themselves inside of our prison facility. A year-long examination of the inner workings of penal facilities by the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons recently concluded, and I'm quoting here, "What happens inside jails and prisons does not stay inside jails and prisons. " 231 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 With close to 9,000 men and women incarcerated in the City jails and scores of correctional officers, volunteers and family visitors, the prison experience travels far and wide. The overcrowded experience travels even further. Clearly, the common threads in systems across this country are the unintended consequences of shortsighted reform efforts. Unfortunately, when criminal violence erupts, the tendency is to focus on immediate answers to the public's fears and concerns, but we need to take this opportunity to reinvent our approach, to close the divide between what we know and what we've learned from our everyday practice in these facilities and the fears that we encounter every day. One thing we can and should do is alter the focus of prisons. Instead of concentrating efforts on security and punishment, prisons should emphasize education, job training, life skills and 232 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 citizenship for those who need to be there. This approach will better prepare ex-offenders to reenter society with improved prospects for success. With one of the nation's largest concentrations here in Philadelphia of academics, of criminal justice professionals, ex-offenders and committed activists, there's no reason why the City of Philadelphia cannot win this battle and once again become the leader in this area as we were over two centuries ago when our organization began. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Your testimony is right on target, and hopefully we can move towards some of your recommendations. And at least I agree with your whole testimony about the cause and what we should do and what ought to happen. I imagine you're going to testify tomorrow at Councilwoman Miller's? 233 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 MR. DiMASCIO: Right. I have a 24-point plan for her tomorrow.

Maybe we'll see the 24-point plan and have some input into the 24-point plan, because the more that whatever plan it is is shared -- because no one person has the answer. No one group has the answer, but we all have to have a dialogue about what we think ought to be the answer. And somebody will take a little piece over here and somebody will take a little piece over there, and maybe we can come to a way we handle the whole issue of sentencing. And certainly I agree with you, there is nothing happening in the prisons to help people become educated or any job-training skills. It's just a holding cell, and they come out and go right back to doing what they want to do. Donna Miller's hearing tomorrow will concentrate on how we can get ex-offenders back into the job market, 234 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 and that's a whole other discussion we have to have with the business community, because they want to feel some sense of safety if they're going to hire ex-offenders. So that is a dialogue that she's promoting, and certainly your testimony today should be given so that they can hear that testimony and why it's important for us to receive people back into the community when they come and they have a desire to want to make a change or better their lives, that that support has to be there. So your message is very important. MR. DiMASCIO: Thank you.

Thank you very much for your testimony. I think we have a couple other people who are here. Nicole Edwards, Toby Rich, Leotus Jones.

Leo said he'll try to be back.

I'm sorry. We went so long. 235 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Is there anyone else here to testify? (No response.)

Thank you. Identify yourself, please, Toby.

My name is Toby Rich. I work with the Scoop Newspaper, and I'm called the Mayor of Girard Avenue.

Yes, sir.

I want to thank you, Ms. Tasco, City Councilperson Tasco. What is your proper title here? Madam Chairman?

Yes.

Okay. Madam Chairman. What you are doing, you have taken two sides that ordinarily if you had put them in a chicken coop, they would have killed each other. And what you're doing is remarkable, because you refereed this situation. You didn't make 236 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 it like you was going to take one side over the other. I commend you on what you've done, because this is not an easy situation. You see, I've lived Jackson versus Hendricks. See, I was in jail then, the House of Correction, the Detention Center, Law Hall, before that as a kid. I went to Gaudenzia House, but months before that they played with me in the Juvenile Center. When I went by Graterford, I went there by working for Gaudenzia so we would pick people that would want to come in the program. That was like in the late '60s, early '70s. The overcrowded situation in the jail is something that is just as dangerous for the guard as it is the inmate, and it creates diseases. And, you know, I respect Commissioner King, but I don't expect him to say what's going on for real, for real. He can't do that. And I respect him for having the 237 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 courtesy to adhere to a policy, because at least it shows me that they're sticking together a little bit, because he can't make his fellow CO's -- he's part of a higher club now, but the CO's don't make each other look bad. Now, when I was in there, there was a CO by the name of Harry Moore. We called him "Egg Salad," because that's the sandwiches he bought. And Harry is, from what I understand, retired. I saw him when he was a sergeant, then he made captain, then he made major, then he made warden. He got stabbed while he was in there. But Harry Moore and his CO's, they were united, be it the House of Correction, be it the Detention Center, be it Holmesburg. Because it was an unwritten code, you are a CO, I am an inmate, and we understood those terms. And just like on the outside, the police were the police. In jail, the CO was the police. We understood those terms. We 238 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 respected those terms. And they were terms of agreement. I don't know what happened. I don't know where the breakdown came. But what you're doing is so important, because what you're bringing about is dialogue. See, they can go back to their positions. Now, see, at any other time, this type of dialogue would be very dangerous, but being that it's being brought out in an open forum such as City Council by you, they would be fools to go back to their respective jobs in the jails and create an atmosphere that would be ugly. But I remember a time when you brought charges against the CO. There are consequences. There was a CO -- and I don't want to break his anonymity, but he was a good dude. Me and him was all right. And I was on A Block, F Dorm, but A Block at the time was a nut block, a mental health block, I'll say. And they would get a guy, preferably two 239 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 African-Americans, to work the block, be it the block rep and the alternate. I was the alternate. A very good friend of mine was the block rep. He had a reputation. Matter of fact, he's in that book, the Black Brotherhood. And they would have two of us on the block and then they'd have one of the Italian mobs on the block, because they'd separate them. And then we would look after the people that had mental problems, and we looked after them. We'd make sure they got their medication. We gave them that kindness that other inmates wouldn't necessarily give them, because you must keep in mind, we were locked up and the CO is locked up, too, but they go home. And, you know, I saw something happen in our prisons and jails when they took (unintelligible) out. At one time the inmates ran a certain part of the jail, and that was kind of important. People thought it may have gotten out of hand, but if you're in a place and you're 240 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES.

060711 going to live there maybe for the rest of your life, you would like to have some kind of say-so on what goes on, especially if you can keep things in a kind of order. There's a certain code of people that were a part of that world and I might talk to at one time. We tried to live by that code, because we're already considered the "ex" people, the offensive people, the people that society has cast aside and said, We want you to change. Although I must say, I have seen some people that are supposedly so well trained, and I might add that they could use a bit of rehabilitation themselves. But back to my point. When someone came up with this bright idea to go in Graterford and change that system, what you did, you got rid of Ali Baba, but you kept the 40 thieves, and nobody knew how to deal with all of these thieves. So what they did, they said, 241 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Well, we'll put the police in charge of the thieves. Now, the police's thing was, Well, I know what I'll do, I'll lock them up. I'll make them lock-in/feed-in, keep them locked up in their cell for eight hours, ten hours, hours instead 8 of letting them function on the jail. 9 And then they privatized it. See, we 10 used to make our own food in the jail. 11 See, we worked the kitchen. We worked 12 the hospital. We did all that stuff. But somebody came up with an idea, we're going to get people to work that, and then that put us out of a job. That gave us nothing to do. So we sat around and we thought. And believe me, what's going on now, in the '80s we saw and we talked about it, and me in my sick criminal mind -- and I thank God for his grace and mercy for allowing me to change -- I would have welcomed to be in the system now, because it was so -- it's so easy to create chaos now. It would be easy to 242 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 have a riot. It would be easy to take the felons and position them to actually overthrow the prison, because I see descension in the CO's. I thank God I'm not there, because I know in my mind what I would have planned to do with this situation. To see a CO actually not have that comradery anymore, to hear a correctional officer say that their level of support is almost zero, I would have loved that. In my sick criminal mind, that would have been an ideal situation to take back to prisoners, take back what they took from us. But I thank God, once again, for his grace and mercy in allowing me to change, and I thank you all, especially John Street, the Mayor, who helped me see that I needed to change and also told me that he could help me be the best Toby that I could be.

Could you kind of summarize.

Yes, I can sum this up real briefly. 243 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 What I see is, we know there's a problem. Now how do we fix it? You can fix it by honestly having what you said to Commissioner King, Hey, man, you need to talk to your CO's. He needs to sit down, take the brass off, have what we call a "hats off." Let them tell him the concern of the prisons and take suggestions and ideas from the very people that he may feel work for him, but really they work together. Because, see, he needs them just as much as they need him. And I must say this, too, before I go: In order for a jail to work, you need inmates, too. See, the Prison System without people committing a crime, they have no job. See, they need to work with the inmates also. So collectively if they sit down and if they look inside themselves and all they got to do is say, if I was in his position, how would I want to be treated. God will do the rest. 244 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Thanks for letting me share.

Thank you so much, Toby. (Applause.)

You really gave some good words of wisdom. I really appreciate that. We appreciate what you do and that you have come a long way. It doesn't hurt to have a dialogue, for people to talk. I mean, we've heard -- you're right, there's got to be a discussion. The folks have come in and said they're in pain, they're hurting, they need some remedy. Those of you who are in charge heard the testimony. There's nothing wrong with going back and saying, How can we remedy this. How can we come up with some way to make these employees feel safer, feel more appreciated, release and help alleviate some of the problems they're having. You need to talk to us what you need in terms of equipment. I mean, we 245 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 won't know how to address your budget issues if you don't talk to us. We're not going to succeed at everything, but a little bit is better than nothing. So it wasn't my intention to bring the sides in and get angry with either side, take sides. It's not my role. Our role here and the Committee's role is to listen to what the issues are and see if we can try to come up with some remedy to address the pain of the correctional officers, to understand what you go through in leadership, that you also need support from the Administration in terms of what you do, and our role is trying to help you meet the goals that you set for yourself. So we appreciate your coming down. I was not going to get into a yelling and screaming kind of -- and I don't think the correctional officers wanted that. They wanted to have an opportunity to say, This is what's going on and can you help us. And you heard 246 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 that, and I expect you all to go back and try to figure out how you're going to work it out. We will not adjourn this Committee. We're going to recess it, because that gives me the opportunity to call you all back in here and we talk about what progress have you made. And when you come in to testify at your budget hearings, you've got to speak up. You've got to speak up. So unless there's someone else here to testify, this meeting is adjourned to the call of the Chair. Thank you. (Committee on Public Health and Human Services adjourned at 3:10 p.m.) - - - 247 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on October 31, 2006, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-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.)