Prison population still climbing

The number of murders in Philadelphia continues to drop, just as Mayor Nutter promised they would when he took office in January. To date, murders are down about 22 percent from last year.
But other figures are rising — including the number of prisoners crowding Philadelphia’s jails.
The daily population reached yet another record high Aug. 16, with 9,536 inmates in the system. That’s 200 more than the number of inmates just four months ago, when yet another record was set.
If that rate continues, the daily jail count will supass 10,000 in a year.
Again, that’s 10,000. Think about it as the number of undergraduates enrolled at the Univerity of Pennsylvania.
So what’s being done? Nutter assigned Everett Gillison, deputy mayor for public safety, to lead a new Criminal Justice Advisory Board to coordinate a response to the rising figures. He initially hoped to hold a meeting — with police, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and the court — in June.
But to date, no such meeting has occurred.
Meanwhile, October is around the corner - the month in which the inmate count traditionally peaks anew.

Posted by Marcia Gelbart @ 12:50 PM Permalink | 1 comment

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