City Council will consider a community oversight board for Philadelphia's prisons

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — City Council will consider asking voters to create an oversight board for the city’s prisons. Legislation to change the city charter was introduced Thursday.

The bill’s prime sponsor, Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, says he’s heard enough atrocious stories coming out of Philadelphia’s prisons: escapes, assaults, prisoners dying while in withdrawal, and one that particularly haunts him — “the young man who was released from prison, and he was gunned down while he was trying to get home on the bus.”

Rodney Hargrove was fatally shot, about an hour after he was released from Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, at 2 a.m. on March 18, 2021, in what police say was a case of mistaken identity. His alleged shooter, Ameen Hurst, was the subject of a 10-day manhunt after he escaped from Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center last year.

Thomas says the weight of the incidents has convinced him an oversight board is needed.

“We want some type of independent entity to be able to provide full transparency so we understand all the issues that we’re facing,” Thomas said. “And we want to make sure there’s an opportunity for accountability when those issues present themselves.”

The legislation proposes creating a Prison Community Oversight Board and an Office or Prison Oversight. Details such as who would serve on the board and how they’d be selected are not laid out.

Thomas says Council wants to work with the mayor’s office on the specifics.

“Clearly, Council will have some authority as it relates to who’s on this board. Clearly, the mayor is going to have a lot of authority as it relates to who’s on this board. And for us the goal is to spend some time in the kitchen with the admin to figure out what exactly those ingredients consist of and what the happy compromise can be.”

The legislation got immediate support from the Defenders Association, who called it a “strong and crucial first step toward addressing the persistently dangerous conditions in Philly’s jails.” And 16 of the 17 members of City Council co-sponsored the bill, so it seems sure to pass, perhaps in time to be on the primary ballot in May of next year.