Letters: Deputy mayor: Progress on incarceration

RE YOUR Sept. 22 editorial,

"Mayor's To-Do List, Part II":

I couldn't agree more with the editorial board's recognition of the need for the administration to take a "hard look at how to reduce the prison population."

What I question is the implication that no such hard look has been taken already. The editorial even implies that the administration's efforts at managing the prison population were put on hold until resolution of the budget. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The daily prison population is now about 400 less than during the same period last year, a decrease of about 4 percent. This is unprecedented: The number had increased an average of about 4 percent a year for the last nine years.

This has not been accomplished by accident nor by any reckless release of inmates. It results from the cooperative effort of the various criminal-justice agencies, including this administration, the First Judicial District, the D.A.'s office and the Defender Association. Although these agencies have worked cooperatively on these issues for many years, the formation of the Criminal Justice Advisory Board (CJAB) gave this cooperation an additional boost.

One of the first subcommittees created by the CJAB was the one on the prison population, which includes members from each of the agencies mentioned above. The subcommittee has met at least once a month since it was created, including throughout the period of the budget process.

This effort includes the development of various mechanisms for the transfer to state custody of as many inmates as possible.

It includes the creation or expansion of various programs for alternatives to incarceration for the low-risk offenders you refer to in the editorial (although not all of the stakeholders agree with the 61 percent figure).

It also includes the development or expansion of various efficiencies in the system such as increased use of video technologies, electronic transfer of required police paperwork and closer management by the courts of the cases in the system.

These efficiencies bring about faster resolution of court cases, which means shortened stays for those in county custody.

Despite the great progress already made, all of the criminal-justice partners are well aware that there is much work to be done.

We know that it is possible to do this because we have seen what can be accomplished in a relatively short period of time even under difficult circumstances.

Everett A. Gillison

Deputy Mayor for Public Safety

Bike-lane accounting

Re Stu Bykofsky's column "Bicyclists Given Too Much Roadway?" on the new bike lanes: How many more barrels of oil and gallons of gas will be expended by idling vehicles?

It seems to me that if you could somehow tally up the amount of oil saved by commuters turned bicyclists vs. the amount of oil expended by commuters spending more time in traffic plus other travelers affected by the a chain reaction of traffic (slower here equals slower elsewhere), the end result is likely to be the expenditure of MORE oil and gas and a harsher environmental impact.

Have any of our brilliant leaders thought in these terms? I'd love to hear the answer to that one.

Brian C. Ray, Quakertown