One man who died this year was still in the intake area three days after his arrest, sources said.Īnd the city has acknowledged only two deaths in news releases since the start of the pandemic. Another said the intake areas were emptied before his visit to conceal that the area was routinely overcrowded, potentially delaying important screenings and care. One said prisoners told her bottles of cleaning solution were placed on units before she arrived it turned out the bottles were empty.
Visitors to the jails alleged that the jails were staged for their visits. Afterward, she alleged in a whistleblower lawsuit, she was demoted and transferred. She also said staffing rosters were doctored to make it appear as if the facilities were fully staffed. She said staff were being instructed to fake logs to make it appear that prisoners were getting the chance to shower and call home. In October, a corrections lieutenant wrote to Mayor James Kenney and Judge Schiller, detailing what she described as critical “human rights” violations being concealed at the jails. “Now, it snowballed,” said David Robinson, president of Local 159 of AFSCME District Council 33, “and they can’t hire fast enough to keep this jail safe anymore.” Instead, the city has twice agreed to pay $125,000 to community bail funds to avoid contempt findings. Schiller has repeatedly ordered the city to do better, including providing more out-of-cell time. Lawyers sued yet again in April 2020, and Senior U.S. After Philadelphia jails went into 23-hour-a-day lockdown to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, they never had sufficient staff to restore normal movement. And the city closed Philadelphia’s oldest jail, the dungeon-like House of Correction.īut staffing issues were a preexisting condition - causing rolling lockdowns that often meant incarcerated people didn’t get out of their cells on weekends. The city, courts, district attorney and defender had collaborated to cut the jail population by more than 40%. City officials say they did a ‘good job.’Īfter a half-century of civil-rights litigation over alleged inhumane conditions and overcrowding, the Philadelphia Department of Prisons appeared to have stabilized before the pandemic. » READ MORE: 29 people died in Philly jails in the pandemic.
“No one is safe,” said Mark Subher, who was stabbed, punched and stomped during an attack in the jails on a cell block where no officer was present. There’s a nearly two-week wait for sick calls in part because nurses became afraid to go onto unstaffed cell blocks after fights broke out. Staff use of force has increased dramatically, while pepper spray usage has nearly doubled. There have been repeated riots in which fires were set and property destroyed. The jails, one analysis concluded, are awash in contraband such as homemade weapons in part because searches have fallen by 95% compared with 2019. Prisoners report going days without showers or phone calls, missing meals, pleading fruitlessly for toilet paper and living in filth. The result, according to incarcerated people, staff and observers, is a dangerous and inhumane situation. Some officers say mandatory overtime, resulting in 16- or 20-hour days, has pushed them to the brink. In addition, on average, 20% of those assigned to work don’t show up. That number has been growing: In the current fiscal year, twice as many people left as were hired. The jails, which house 4,300 people in a complex on State Road in Northeast Philadelphia, are 644 correctional officers short, reflecting a 36% vacancy rate.