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Prisons low-ball, then stonewall, on over-crowding impacts
CP has learned that 1,197 inmates are now living three to a cell.
Prisons low-ball, then stonewall, on over-crowding impacts
Last week, we wrote in City Paper about overcrowding in the Philly jails, and how — in addition to tactics like turning former day areas into dorms — the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility (CFCF) continues to hold some inmates three to a cell, a practice, known as triple-celling, that has triggered a class action lawsuit and a series of some 500 civil suits against the prisons. We've since learned that triple-celling at CFCF is far more extensive than the prisons would lead us to believe.
Because Philly Prisons Public Information Officer Shawn Hawes is pretty new on the job, we chalked it up to error when she responded to our request for triple-cell numbers by first telling us there were "no inmates currently triple-celled at CFCF," then calling back to up that number to around 100 inmates, then calling again to say she didn't know the number, but it could be anywhere from "two to 60 cells," or six to 180 inmates on a given day.
After we printed that quote, though, prisoner advocates told us it was way off — as in, a thousand inmates off. Back to Hawes, who told us she not only can't give us the current triple-cell number, but she now won't give it to us, due to ongoing litigation. However, it turns out there's a monthly list of inmates being triple-celled. And the list of inmates in triple-cell situations for July, obtained by CP, reveals the real number: 1,197 inmates are now living three to a cell. Some 360 of them have been triple-celled for 30 days or more; 19 have been triple-celled for 50 days or more. Remember, for every triple-cell, someone is forced to sleep every night on the floor in a "blue boat," a foam cot wedged, all too often, in splashing distance of the toilet.
David Rudovsky, a lawyer who has been active in overcrowding issues and was a plaintiffs' attorney in the class action Williams v. City of Philadelphia, says the numbers are not surprising. He says the triple-cell number has been "running between 1,100 and 1,300 for the past year." Now, he's particularly worried about how the rash of recent suicides may relate to conditions within the city jails. "We've asked for information concerned with suicides. We are concerned that they may be related to overcrowding and other poor conditions. But it's too early to tell."
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