(Philadelphia Public Record, May 7, 2009)

CRIMINAL-JUSTICE SYSTEM – A PIPELINE WITH PROBLEMS

by Tony West

The criminal-justice system is a pipeline with many sections. Offenses are reported and offenders enter into it at one end, then are processed, managed and transferred through a series of government agencies. One offender may deal with half a dozen departments at different points in the history of one crime.

Some of these agencies are larger and more richly funded than others. In times of heightened public concern about crime, legislators rush to fund some of them – police and prison budgets are treated as sacred cows – while ignoring or even decrying the others – judges and parole departments make easy targets. But each one of them plays an essential role in public safety.

In fact, if some sections in the pipeline are enlarged at the same time others are clogged, the whole system starts to leak at the seams and break down. When that happens, criminals stay criminals or return to crime.

For in a large number of cases, the criminal-justice pipeline is sadly circular. Offenders cycle around and back through it, failing to make the transition to productive citizenship.

When this happens, the system is less like a pipeline (which is supposed to go somewhere, after all) and more like a snake biting its own tail – a rattlesnake.

Usually the flow of cases begins with the Police Dept. If individuals are arrested, charges must be placed by the District Attorney’s Office. These cases must be heard and adjudicated by the Court System. Before or after conviction, some individuals are sent to either County or State Prisons. Most, however, wind up on probation or parole. In the end, the vast majority of offenders finish serving their time and face reentry to society. Often they will receive help from other branches of government, such as Health & Human Services or Public Welfare.

Year in, year out the Philadelphia Police Dept. reports more than major 80,000 major crimes and many more minor ones. No one knows how many individuals were responsible for those crimes and it is harder than you might think even to track how many individuals are arrested in a year. Let’s just say lots.

The Police Dept. is one of the largest and richest sections on the pipeline. With 6,600 employees and a budget of $524 million, it is the first thing most people think of when they think of crime-fighting.

However, nothing further can happen to a criminal case unless it is prosecuted. That is the job of the DA’s Office, whose 600 employees handle about 70,000 criminal matters per year with a budget of $32 million.

No prosecution can take place without a defending attorney. For the most part that is a public duty, since 70% of Philadelphia’s criminal defendants are represented by the Defender’s Association of Philadelphia. Although this is a private nonprofit agency, almost all of its $35 million budget is covered by payments from the City budget.

The lawyers propose, but the courts dispose. Because the 1st Judicial Dist. does not release a breakdown of its budget, it is unclear how many of its resources are spent on court hearings and their ensuing decisions, but they are the focus of the Court System’s work, perhaps accounting for $95 million of its budget and 1,500 of its employees.

Three outcomes befall a defendant in court. Charges may be dropped or he may be acquitted, in which case he goes free. He may be convicted and sent to prison. Or he may be released on probation and parole, with a variety of conditions attached.

Convicts wind up in one of two systems, the County’s or the State’s. The Philadelphia Prison System houses almost 10,000 inmates at this time. They include both persons who have been arrested but could not make bail while awaiting trial, and persons who have been convicted and sentenced to serve time. With 2,358 employees today and an annual budget of $230 million, it is a mammoth component of the criminal-justice pipeline.

Yet the true scope of imprisonment is much bigger. That’s because most Philadelphia convicts, 15,440 as of today, wind up in a State Prison. Although there are no State prisons inside the city, Philadelphia residents constitute 30% of the State Prison System’s load. Therefore, 30% of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Corrections budget of $1.64 billion picks up the tab for Philadelphian prisoners. That’s a staggering $490 million.

Therefore the true cost of prisons in the city’s criminal-justice pipeline dwarfs even that of the police: $720 million of taxpayers’ dollars.

While 25,000 adult Philadelphians are locked up by either the County or the State, almost 60,000 more are maintained on probation or parole by either the County or the State. The State’s 9,000 share of the total is served by 122 of its total agent force of 458; the city’s share of the Pennsylvania Board of Probation & Parole total budget is about $30 million.

They’re the lucky ones. County parolees, who fall under the supervision of the 1st Dist.’s Adult Probation & Parole Dept., get much less individual attention. As with court costs, APPD’s budget is not released to the public. It may, however, run as low as $20 million. That’s less money than the State spends to supervise one-fifth as many parolees.

Several other government agencies play smaller but equally crucial roles in the business of resolving cases. And because each agency has a different structure, comparing staff and budgets can be dangerously like comparing apples and oranges.

One fact is clear, though: some pieces of the criminal-justice pipeline are given vastly more resources than others.

Maybe none of them are adequately funded. Overall, though, if society has any problems with crime control, it can’t be because we are spending too much money on prosecution, or defense, or probation and parole. Together they account for at most 8 cents of the criminal-justice dollar. If any big money is being spent unwisely, we must look elsewhere to find it.