100 inmates at Philly’s jails released with agreement by prosecutors, courts, and public defenders

One hundred people incarcerated in Philadelphia’s jails while awaiting trial were released in recent weeks as part of an effort to reduce the city’s jail population amid what advocates have called “dangerous” conditions and an ongoing staffing shortage.

Over the last five weeks, the Defender Association of Philadelphia, in partnership with the District Attorney’s Office and the First Judicial District, worked to identify a list of people charged with relatively low-level offenses and who remained in jail because they couldn’t afford bail, said Andrew Pappas, pretrial managing director for the defenders.

Pappas said he and his team were “looking at the individual, looking at their big picture, and saying, you know, this person doesn’t need to be locked up.”

Municipal Court Judge Karen Simmons held weekly emergency bail hearings to review the cases and determine whether a person’s bail should be reduced

In total, 19 women and 81 men facing 123 cases saw their bail reduced and were released, Pappas said. About 35% were ordered to some form of pretrial supervision, he said, and about a quarter received social services, like addiction treatment and housing support.

Those released, who faced charges that ranged from drug possession and retail theft to illegal gun possession, had few, if any, previous arrests, Pappas said:

The majority would likely be offered probation if convicted, and even so, he said, are all presumed innocent until then.

“They have a right to not be incarcerated pretrial for a crime they have not been convicted of,” he said.

Some people had been in custody for more than six months while awaiting trial, he said, while others were held for a few weeks. All of their cases were in the early stages, he said.

The jails are dangerous, Pappas said, particularly amid an ongoing and unprecedented staffing shortage of correctional officers. The staffing crisis has continued for so long that, over the summer, a federal judge overseeing a lawsuit over conditions at the jails held city officials in contempt for not taking the necessary steps to mitigate the issue.

While the bail hearings were not held in response to that ongoing lawsuit, Pappas said, the judge overseeing the case did come to observe one day.

“The overcrowding and understaffing aren’t just concerns of ours,” Pappas said. “The whole system has some motivation to reduce that prison population.”

The number of people housed in Philadelphia’s jails has dropped dramatically in the last 10 years. About 4,500 people are incarcerated across the city’s four facilities — nearly half as many as in 2015, according to data from the Department of Prisons.

Pappas said he would meet with prosecutors and court officials again on Nov. 18 to discuss another list of defendants. It’s not clear, he said, whether the program will continue after that.

He said the program shows that, “when we work collaboratively, when we think about people as individuals and do it safely, it’s a win-win for everybody.”

A spokesperson for the Philadelphia courts declined to comment. The District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond.