By STEPHANIE FARR
The Philadelphia Daily News
Philly pilot program aids fugitives
PHILADELPHIA — Kathy Parrish lived homeless on the streets of Philadelphia for 15 years, addicted to crack cocaine.
But it was the thought of going to church yesterday that made her break down.
“I was scared to death,” Parrish, 51, said. “I cried all the way here.”
Parrish and two of her friends from an outpatient drug- and alcohol-treatment program traveled to the True Gospel Tabernacle Church, in South Philadelphia, to seek salvation - not from the Lord, but from the law.
And they emerged from the church, singing the praises of both.
The women were among 170 Philadelphia fugitives who appeared at the church yesterday to give themselves up under the U.S. Marshals Service’s Fugitive Safe Surrender Program, according to Philadelphia Deputy District Attorney John Delaney Jr.
Under the program, individuals with outstanding warrants or probation violations for nonviolent offenses can turn themselves in at the church, on Mifflin Street near 16th, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Saturday to clear their warrants, set a court date and, in some instances, dispose of their cases altogether on the church altar.
“We are recognizing the fact that they’ve recognized it’s time to stop running,” Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Pamela Dembe said of the judicial leniency many defendants received. “Everyone I have seen is so grateful.”
Dembe and Philadelphia Municipal Court President Judge Louis J. Presenza presided over cases on the altar, while public defenders and district attorneys ironed out plea deals in the nave.
Presenza said he pushed for the program to be a way to dispose of cases completely instead of just disposing of the bench warrants, benefiting the defendant and the overloaded court system.
“And it’s happening because they brought in seasoned district attorneys and public defenders who know how to dispose of them,” he said. “You can see the dedication on their faces. They want this to work.”
Many, like Parrish, who had five bench warrants to her name for drug possession, panhandling, skipping probation and similar offenses, were initially afraid the program was a trap.
“I would never turn myself in,” she said. “I’m not the type of person who has it in me. I don’t want to go to jail. It’s so overcrowded and I might be there 45 days until I get a court date.”
But the outstanding warrants were stopping Parrish, who has been living in a shelter since July, from procuring housing. And the fear of living the next 15 years on the street as she has the last 15 drove her to clear her name.
As it happened, Parrish’s five warrants were dropped and she was given a court date. In fact, only three of the 170 fugitives who surrendered yesterday were taken into custody.
“I’m telling everybody I see who has a warrant that this is the time to do it,” she said. “This thing is really real and it really works.”
Melvin Tyson, 53, a former crack-cocaine addict of 20 years who turned himself in on two outstanding drug warrants, said that he did so not for himself but to make his aunt proud. She told him about the program.
“I never thought I would be here,” he said. “But I can’t keep thinking about it all day - mostly at night - ‘Are they coming for me? Are they not coming for me? Are they going to come sooner or later?’ ”
The Rev. Ernest McNear, of True Gospel church, brought the program to the city and his church after a colleague read about it on the Internet.
“What we are witnessing today is cooperation of church and state,” he said. “The spirit is one of faith and confidence and hope.
“When they come out of that church crying tears of joy - that is hope.”
The program applies to only those nonviolent offenders with warrants issued in Philadelphia, and does not include juvenile, traffic or domestic-relations offenses.
After the program ends on Saturday, warrant sweeps will be conducted by the U.S. Marshals Service and local law-enforcement agencies, said SharonBeth Kristal, national coordinator for the program. *
Copyright 2008 Philadelphia Newspapers, LLC