Henon pulls prison land bill, calls critics uninformed

A plan to purchase land being eyed for a new prison was shelved Wednesday after running into opposition from those who accused the city of giving prisons priority over Philadelphia's struggling school system.

In a letter sent to Mayor Nutter on the eve of City Council's last meeting until September, Councilman Bobby Henon called those critics "uninformed and politically motivated." Henon said he was pulling the bill back and would restart the debate in the fall.

"This is not a choice between school desks and prison beds," Henon wrote. "It is easy to play on public fears and to spread information to fuel a culture of inaction. It is much more difficult to make tough decisions, particularly when those decisions most directly affect the least powerful among us."

The sharply worded letter was only the latest sign of tensions that have brewed for weeks in the community and on Council, where a rare division in the ranks spilled into public view.

The legislation would allow the city to negotiate over the next year to purchase the property at 7777 State Rd. in Northeast Philadelphia. The 58-acre parcel along the Delaware River, which the city has said is worth about $7.2 million, is just south of the city's six-facility prison complex. Henon's office said the land is owned by BNP Paribas, a bank that took ownership after it lent money to a development company that hoped to build homes there but folded.

The bill has Nutter's backing. But any decision to build a new prison, at a projected cost of $300 million to $500 million, would fall to the next mayor's administration.

Officials have said a facility is needed to replace the House of Correction, which was built in 1874 and renovated in the 1920s.

The current building is meant to house 1,250 inmates and is about 250 over capacity. There are no air-conditioning, automatic locks, or sprinklers, and officials say installing those would be difficult because of the thick concrete walls. Visitors wait in a basement room with no windows and wires crisscrossing the low ceiling.

Henon, who introduced the bill on behalf of the administration, said in his letter that the facility violated basic human rights. Pitting the need for a new prison against funding for schools, he said, is irresponsible.

One of his colleagues, Curtis Jones Jr., has been one of the strongest voices making that comparison.

"I just think it's ironic that we would, in these tough, competing times, budgetarily chose prisons over graduation rates," Jones said last week.

As recently as Wednesday, others on Council were airing their own concerns. Cindy Bass encouraged Henon to let the legislation sit, saying a vote Thursday would be premature, especially as the issue became intertwined with the debate over funding the schools.

"That sort of takes away from what it is that we need to do out on State Road for those who are incarcerated," Bass said. "We have to address the situation there, which is that we have a 140-year-old correctional facility which is unfit for inhabitation."

Henon, whose district includes the site, has also felt heat from those who live along State Road. Peter McDermott, who lives a mile from the prison complex, said he gathered signatures from 1,200 people opposed to the purchase.

McDermott said the neighborhood has changed dramatically since the first prison was built there. He said that if a new prison was needed, it should be put as far away from residential areas as possible.

"I think we've carried this anchor around long enough," he said. "It's basically been a weight around our necks. It's somebody else's turn. Spin the wheel."

Henon said Wednesday that he would attend community meetings over the summer break to talk about the concerns. He said the city would also create a working group to study prison and incarceration reform.

Mark McDonald, the mayor's spokesman, said Wednesday that the administration would work with Council in the coming weeks "to provide members with whatever information they might need to make an informed decision."

If Council does decide to buy the land, it doesn't mean a new prison will be built any time soon.

Jim Kenney, the Democratic mayoral nominee, originally opposed buying the land, but recently has said it seemed like a prudent move. He said he still would not use the land for a prison, favoring instead a facility for job training or educational classes for inmates.

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@TriciaNadolny