Officials Meet to Work Out Philly’s Jail Problems

PHILADELPHIA — City council members, jail officials and jail union leaders recently had a four-hour meeting to discuss problems in Philadelphia’s jail system, but could not come to a consensus on how the city should fix several major problems.

City and union officials argued that safety and staffing should be the main focus of improvements, while jail officials said the focus should lie in strengthening the community and anti-crime and social programs.

The jail system has been plagued with stabbings, the murder of an inmate, and assaults and near-rapes of female correction officers, according to officials.

Assaults on inmates have tripled due to security issues, and the system needs approximately 237 more people to create an ideal staffing size. However, any new correction officers hired would cut into the $21 million in overtime the city pays to current officers every year, and that could bring complaints from the officers’ union, according to officials.

The city’s jail population has climbed 6.2 percent since June 2004, and prisoners are sleeping in utility closets and in hallways, according to reports. Last year, the system processed 33,962 inmates, costing the city more than $200 million.

Jail officials said that preventing crime and reducing the jail population is a more productive approach to reforming the system, rather than building new facilities or adding more beds. Money that would otherwise be spent on such projects could instead be invested into effective crime-reducing measures.