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?
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.
Good afternoon. My name is Latoya Lockett. I work for ASD, Alternative and Special Detention.
Alternative and 154 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Special Detention.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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
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.
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.
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 --
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
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.
Lorenzo North, President of Local 159, District Council 182 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 33.
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, right. You talked about the women in the facility and you said they're all heavily medicated. What do you mean by that?
Didn't you talk about that? You said it. You said the women were medicated.
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?
So they 184 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 have heavy medication that they take for their mental illness?
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.
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?
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.
I'm sorry. We went so long. 235 10/31/06 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 060711 Is there anyone else here to testify? (No response.)
My name is Toby Rich. I work with the Scoop Newspaper, and I'm called the Mayor of Girard Avenue.
I want to thank you, Ms. Tasco, City Councilperson Tasco. What is your proper title here? Madam Chairman?
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.
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.
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.)