So what we need in order to expand that and get it to be effective is a little bit north of $4 million per year -- REV.
And the funds is not -- they go to the people who are doing the work.
Any other questions -- okay. Oh, we've been here a while. I want to thank you so much for your testimony and for those who had the patience to wait through this. But we were getting so much good feedback, so much good information that my colleagues have committed to entering into the discussion over budget so that this hearing will be a continuation of seeking those answers to the questions posed today. So thank you for your testimony. REV.
You're welcome. I just need to make a correction. That number of 4 is directly related to the work that we've been doing specifically with the District Attorney's Office. There's restorative justice work being done in our School District, being done in our health care systems, Temple University, University of Pennsylvania. So if City Council is considering the network of restorative work that is being done in the city. I recommend you do a study of the costs. And I know the costs are going to be better than what they are without restorative justice.
Thank you. Thank you again. We will now proceed to go next door to talk to anyone who wants to talk to us in public comment. This concludes the business of the Joint Committee --
All right. Let's start. We're going to ask those who are interested in public comment -- was there a list, Ms. Stack?
If everyone could just raise their hand if they're still in the room. I have Nigel Bowe, Kate Mackey, LaTrista Webb and Chris Snyder, if those four can approach.
Are they here? Two, okay. Come on up. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)
So this will conclude the official part of this hearing of the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Legislative Oversight because our stenographer needs a break. So we will listen to the testimony right here. We'll start here. Thank you. Thank you all for your participation. And you can continue. We might as well sit right where we are. State your name now.
Good afternoon. My name is Nigel Bowe. I'm the Vice-president of Diversion and Re-entry Services for JEVS Human Services. Thank you, Councilmember O'Rourke and all the members of the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Legislative Oversight, for the opportunity to speak today. Our diversion program at JEVS Human Services offers a research-proven alternative to incarceration. We've been hearing about it all day. The program is called The Choice is Yours, also known as TCY. For more than 10 years we've been working in partnership with municipal courts, judges, the District Attorney's Office and the Defender's Association to divert first-time felony drug offenders from prison. Individuals graduating from this program are also eligible to have their cases expunged if they go one year without a new arrest or conviction, and this is how we have directly impacted on reducing the prison population in the city. We divert individuals from incarceration and then we help connect them to career pathways, high-quality employment training and the support they need to sustain a job, which again we've been hearing about all morning. For those who do not graduate from high school, we also offer the opportunity to earn a high school diploma, not a GED. Last year our diversion program supported more than 150 individuals. With more support, we could help more individuals which why we want to expand this program to other types of offenses. This would open the door for us to dramatically impact the number of individuals going into prison. We recently submitted a proposal to PCCD that would support expanding this program to individuals with firearm-related offenses. I'm happy to say that we were awarded that grant and we will start the program asap. Last year just 11% of our individuals who participated in our program were re-arrested compared to the national recidivism rate of 60% or 61%. Our programs work and it saves the City money. It costs about $5,000 per year per participant for our diversion program. According to Vera Institute, the average cost to incarcerate an individual in Philadelphia is around $40,000, could be a little more. Finally, reducing the current prison population requires addressing the barriers to successful re-entry, which we've heard a lot about this morning as well. For successful re-entry, it's vital that individuals have a strong support system in place. Our re-entry program is part of this support providing critical services to overcome barriers to re-entry, such as stable housing, employment, education and training. We currently run a program called Get Ready, Get Set, Get Out at CFCF. It is through the Second Chance Act. It's a federally-funded program. We serve individuals that are between 80 to 180 days of being released that have been identified as medium risk of recidivating, that have had medium offenses and charges. We provide post- and prerelease services so individuals that are released are able to come to our program and choose from four tracks, employment, apprenticeship, credentialing and academic upsell, both our re-entry and diversion programs work to reduce the prison population and with greater support, as mentioned earlier, there's an opportunity for us to do more. So I want to thank you for an opportunity to speak today on behalf of the items on your agenda but also on behalf on behalf of JEVS Human Services.
So thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Please state your name and begin your testimony. We will conclude after these two because we have to -- yeah, we have to go across.
Okay. Hi, Councilman Jones. Hi, everybody. My name is LaTrista Webb. I am the founder and Executive Director of the Elevation Project. We are a re-entry program housed in the 4th District, but we serve all of Philadelphia. I heard a lot of people say a lot of things, but I'm going to wake everybody up and I'm going to start with this. 60% to 65% is the recidivism rate for Philadelphia prisons and state prison system in Pennsylvania. They all both fall between 60% and 67%. The Elevation Project has a 4% recidivism rate. I heard somebody say we couldn't give numbers. I make sure that we track our data. We track our people from the moment they leave our program. We started tracking data in 2022. We've been around since 2015. The data collection didn't become really important to me until 2022. So from 2022 until date, we have a 4% recidivism rate. We serve about 100 people a year. We run a transformative business center where men can come to start and maintain their own business. We take men coming home from state prison as well as State Road. What sets us apart and what I think sets apart every organization that's here, what sets us apart from the DA's Office, the Defender's Association and the prison is that I think all of our programs build relationship. And so, we can talk about closing prisons and we can talk about all this work that we want to do, but if you don't have the ability to build relationships with men and women who are coming home, it's impossible to help them. I heard my brother Dawan talk about giving them a check. But if you still haven't built relationships, most people will wind up down at Sugar House or whatever it's called now and the check will be gone. They will find a way to get it off of that debit card that Councilmember Phillips spoke about. So I'm not saying that you shouldn't put money in the hands of the people, but if you don't connect them to organizations like the Elevation Project that are able to build relationships with people that help them to stay home. Because we talk a lot about keeping people home, but we don't know what it requires for a person to stay home. I am not justice impacted. I've never been to prison. I've never been to jail, never been in handcuffs. Knock on wood I may get out of here. Okay. But my partner has been, right. And so, I think that's what sets us apart from other programs, is that we have that real-life experience. In January -- and I'll end with this. January 18, 2025 we had the opportunity to host the biggest event that the Elevation Project has ever had at Overbrook High School. We had over 800 people there, over 250 people meet with a lawyer. And when that event was over, a week later, a week later, a parole agent decided that he was going to violate my partner who had done everything in his power to help the community because of me, and he missed the date to meet with his agent and the agent violated him and they put him on a house arrest bracelet for 30 days after he had served the community. I'm real-life experience that it took everything, I begged him, please just go down there. He said, it's a warrant out for my arrest, you're telling me to go and turn myself in to go to State Road. And I said, I promise you won't go to jail. He said, Trista, you don't know that I'm not going to go to jail. I said, I promise you won't go to jail. But in the back of my mind I really didn't know. But I knew that if he went on the run, life was going to be real hard when you're a public figure and everybody knows where to find you. So he went, he went on house arrest. But those are the issues that people face in the system. And if you don't have a relationship with the organization that can say, it's okay. I tell all my clients, I'm their privilege. Maybe you can't go speak at Council meetings, maybe you can't call Councilmembers, maybe you can't call the Chief Defender, but I can. I'm your access. I'm your privilege, and that's the relationships that organizations build.
And that's how the City has a 60% recidivism rate and I have a 4% one because my people can call my phone and I answer. Thank you for your time. )
So I want to thank -- before you go, I want to thank JEVS. I've been down to South Philly to see what that program meant to the participants. And it is the real deal. They were given skills. They were working on construction skills to be able to have a real life after probation and parole. To you, colleagues, I have yet to see another program -- no disrespect to anybody else -- better than that. She mentioned Overbrook which is my alma mater. I was there and they were servicing people. But before that, you were in the park on Parkside Avenue during the summer months and there were 300 people. Every time they have a block party -- even before that on Noble Street, every time they have this event, it is 300 people and they can't get to the 301st person because there's not enough lawyers to actually process some of the papers that they had. And these are people that came up to me and I'm like, well, why are you here, are you here for the burger? No, I'm here for the expungement. And I'm like, you know what I mean. And these are pastors, these are neighbors, these are my cousins that I'm like, why are you here. And you didn't know that about them. So when I tell you that there are diamonds out there, it's acres of diamonds, if you would. This is one of them. That's another one. But I've seen an up, close, touch and knew the people that they were helping. And I want you to keep up doing the good work. You don't know this, but I put you in as my budget priority. And I'm hoping that it will be your budget priority. And thank you. Thank you for what you and your partner do. Is he okay?
I met him as well. They are genuine people and I vouch for them.
Member Harrity, just in time to say goodbye. All right. Thank you all. Thank you for your patience. We'll be across the hall. (Joint Committees on Public Safety and Legislative Oversight concluded at 1:28 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. __________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL