Mayor Cherelle Parker appoints Michael R. Resnick to be Philly prisons commissioner

Michael R. Resnick, Philadelphia’s former public safety director and a longtime government official, will take over the city’s Department of Prisons during a tumultuous time at the jail complex.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker announced Monday that Resnick, who briefly served as acting prisons commissioner in 2015, will oversee the jails that hold more than 4,600 people. He replaces outgoing head Blanche Carney, who announced her retirement last month and whose last day was Friday.

Resnick will take over a beleaguered department that has seen years of disorder inside the jails, several recent high-profile escapes, three homicides over the last six months, and a yearslong staffing crisis that advocates say has led to violations of prisoners’ constitutional rights.

In a statement Monday, Resnick, 58, said he is “cognizant of the issues facing the department and the challenges that lie ahead.”

“But I think everyone needs to remember that every day, brave men and women are hard at work in our jails, performing a difficult job helping to keep our city safe,” he said. “I look forward to joining them and improving their working conditions and the conditions of the incarcerated people in our custody.”

» READ MORE: Civil rights groups say Philly’s understaffed, violent jail system is in contempt of court

Parker said her administration conducted a nationwide search, but landed on Resnick, an attorney and a veteran of Philadelphia city government.

He served as the director of public safety for four years under former Mayor Michael A. Nutter, and formerly was the chief of staff and director of legal affairs for the city’s jail system. Most recently, Resnick was the commissioner of pretrial detention and services in Maryland’s Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

“I believe we have found and appointed exactly who we need to lead our prison system into a new era of safety and stability,” Parker said in a statement, adding: “Our prison system is in transition, as are many prisons nationwide.”

Following a class-action lawsuit, a federal judge in 2022 appointed a monitor to oversee the jails and that agreement was set to end last year. But it’s been extended to 2026 because the monitor found the department wasn’t meeting its constitutional obligations and remains vastly understaffed. The department’s job vacancy rate is about 44%.

Civil rights groups on Monday filed a motion asking a judge to hold the city in contempt and issue fines for its “pattern of systemic violations” of prisoners’ constitutional rights.

Prisons officials are expected to address the staffing situation Tuesday, when department leaders are scheduled to testify to City Council during an annual budget hearing. Parker has proposed a $301 million department budget, which is roughly flat compared to last year’s allocation.

Eric Desiderio, who was recently named the new president of the union that represents correctional officers, praised Resnick’s hire, saying he’s “a breath of fresh air.” Members of the same union, Local 159 of AFSCME District Council 33, last year voted to express “no confidence” in Carney.

Desiderio said Resnick cared about morale even during the short time that he was acting commissioner under Nutter.

“My phone is blowing up from the correctional staff saying the mayor made a great choice,” he said. “Mr. Resnick is a morale mover. I don’t know what he has planned for the prisons, but it’s a new day.”