Authorizing the Joint Committees on Public Safety and Legislative Oversight to hold hearings examining actions necessary to significantly reduce the Philadelphia prison population in an effort to permanently close Philadelphia's oldest and most inhumane prison facility, The Detention Center.

Authorizing the Joint Committees on Public Safety and Legislative Oversight to hold hearings examining actions necessary to significantly reduce the Philadelphia prison population in an effort to permanently close Philadelphia’s oldest and most inhumane prison facility, The Detention Center. WHEREAS, Between 2015 and 2022, the City of Philadelphia participated in the MacArthur Foundation Safety and Justice Challenge, where we enacted a comprehensive reform plan to sharply reduce the Philadelphia prison population; and WHEREAS, Through focused interdepartmental coordination, we successfully reduced the population by 54%, from its baseline of 8,082 in July 2015 to an all time low of 3,725 in April 2020; and WHEREAS, This reduction resulted in thousands fewer pre-trial detainees facing horrifying and inhumane conditions in Philadelphia jail facilities; and WHEREAS, This reduction also improved conditions for overworked and at-risk prison staff; and WHEREAS, Moreover, the population reduction saved taxpayers millions of public dollars spent holding pre-trial detainees while they awaited slow court processing; and WHEREAS, Despite our initial progress with the MacArthur challenge, we are at serious risk of sliding backwards, jeopardizing the lives of incarcerated Philadelphians, the working conditions of prison staff, and the gross misspending of taxpayer dollars; and WHEREAS, July 2024’s population of 4,811 marks the highest prison population since October 2019 and the sharpest m…