NCJ Number
141425
Journal
Large Jails Network Bulletin Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Dated: (April 1989) Pages: 5-8
Date Published
1989
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Because the Philadelphia prison system was overcrowded, with about 1,000 more inmates than its maximum capacity, specific measures were implemented to improve prison conditions.
Abstract
The prison system includes eight separate facilities, plus an onsite 100-bed hospital, a detention ward at a local community hospital, and a 40-bed unit at the Youth Study Center which holds youth who will be tried as adults. The buildings range in age from 2 to almost 100 years and hold as few as 60 people and as many as 1,200. After class action lawsuits were brought against the prison system for overcrowded and inadequate prison conditions, Philadelphia implemented six specific measures to provide relief: (1) court-operated Pretrial Services Unit which screens all newly arrested persons to provide recommendations to the court for release on recognizance, reduced bail amounts, or conditional release to treatment; (2) 10-percent cash bail program; (3) Special Bail Master who hears cases of incarcerated persons who present relatively low risk; (4) Philadelphia People's Bail Fund, a private, nonprofit agency completely funded by the prison system, to provide bail assistance to indigent persons; (5) Community Service Orders Project, an early parole mechanism administered by the Pennsylvania Prison Society and totally funded by the prison system; and (6) electronic monitoring to provide house arrest supervision for low-risk sentenced residents and detentioners.