By Julie Shaw
The Philadelphia Daily News
PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia’s prison population can be reduced without jeopardizing public safety if policymakers find ways to keep low-level offenders awaiting trial out of jail and continue to streamline the criminal-justice process, a new report by the Pew Charitable Trusts says.
In its study, “Philadelphia’s Crowded, Costly Jails: The Search for Safe Solutions,” released today, Pew’s Philadelphia Research Initiative found that the rise in county inmate numbers from 1999 to 2008 was driven largely by the number of inmates awaiting trial - and not by convicted criminals.
Without steps to trim the size of the city’s jail population, the “gains the city has made in controlling the jail population may be hard to maintain,” said Larry Eichel, project director of the Philadelphia Research Initiative, who edited the report.
The report notes that leaders in Philadelphia’s criminal-justice system, under the auspices of the city’s Criminal Justice Advisory Board, already have been collaborating to cut the inmate population with some success.
The Criminal Justice Advisory Board, formed in 2008, has members from across the criminal-justice spectrum - including top-level judges, court administrators, and leaders in the District Attorney’s Office, the Defender Association of Philadelphia and the city administration.
The number of inmates in the Philadelphia Prison System reached an all-time average monthly high of 9,787 in January 2009, according to Bob Eskind, prison spokesman. Since then, the number has dropped to 8,306 as of Thursday, he said.
The reduction was due largely to a state law enacted in 2008 that prohibited inmates from serving sentences of between two and five years in local prisons. Before the law, judges had the discretion to send such inmates to county or state prison. After the law was implemented, such inmates had to go to state prison. This resulted in the transfer of several hundred inmates from county to state prisons.
According to federal statistics as of 2008, the latest numbers available, Philadelphia had the fourth-highest jail population per capita of the jurisdictions with the nation’s 50 largest jail populations, including more than three times higher per capita than New York City or Cook County, Ill., which includes Chicago, Pew researchers found.
In looking at what other jurisdictions around the nation have done to reduce their county jail populations, Pew researchers found that what proved to be beneficial and could be done in Philadelphia include:
* Expanding options for diverting low-level offenders into settings other than jail where they can have their addictions or mental-health problems addressed;
* Adopting bail guidelines that allow defendants accused of relatively minor crimes to stay out of jail pending trial.
The researchers noted that Philadelphia already has taken steps to divert low-level offenders. For instance, the court system is expanding the use of “crash court,” an expedited-plea process designed for people accused of low-level misdemeanors who are held pretrial to reduce the time they spend in jail.
City officials also are looking into opening day-reporting centers as an alternative to jail for some offenders.
Common Pleas President Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe and Municipal Court President Judge Marsha Neifield both said the report is helpful.
Neifield noted that Municipal Court more than two years ago undertook an initiative to focus on defendants in need of mental-health treatment.
“Hundreds of defendants have benefited from mental health treatment, which is closely monitored by the judge,” she said by e-mail. “This was one of the first collaborative efforts of the District Attorney’s Office and the Defender Association to find common ground that benefited the defendants.”
The Pew report also suggested that more inmates in Philadelphia could be released without bail while awaiting trial and said that magistrates here follow bail guidelines in only about half the cases.
Neifield said that magistrates ignore guidelines “in cases where you as a member of the public would expect them to exercise their discretion.”
She said the guidelines are not perfect. For instance, some offenses are not part of the guidelines and there are other offenses for which the guidelines would call for someone to be released without bail for an offense such as possession of multiple guns.
She also noted that a magistrate’s bail decision can be appealed by a lawyer to a Municipal Court judge.
The Pew report can be found on the Internet beginning today at: www.pewtrusts.org/philaresearch.
The study will be the focus of a panel discussion, open to the public, at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, 34th and Chestnut streets. Registration information is available at www.pewtrusts.org/events.aspx.
Mayor Nutter is to give introductory remarks. Scheduled speakers include: D.A. Seth Williams; Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Everett Gillison; the Rev. Ernest McNear; and Michael Jacobson, director of the Vera Institute of Justice in New York.
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