A coalition of local activist groups will make a fresh appeal to the Lancaster County commissioners next week, once again asking them to allow a working group of community stakeholders to collaborate with county and court leaders to rethink local criminal justice and detention practices.
The groups, known collectively as “Reimagine Justice Lancaster,” are seeking to bring all voices to the table, the Rev. Jason Perkowski of Power Interfaith said. That includes elected and appointed county officials, people with lived experience of incarceration, their families, social service providers and members of the community at large.
That, he said, will ensure that “we are hearing from all of the citizens and all of the players about how we can make our systems better.”
The group plans to make its appeal on Tuesday, Oct. 1, at the commissioners’ 10 a.m. work session at the County Government Center.
Perkowski spoke Tuesday evening toward the end of “Truth & Justice; Racial Equity & the $400 Million Jail,” a forum on the correctional facility project that the county is planning. Presented by YWCA Lancaster’s Racial Equity Profile Action Team and co-sponsored by the Lancaster Bail Fund, Power Interfaith, the Lancaster Bail Reform Coalition, it drew an audience of around 50 people to Bright Side Opportunity Center.
The centerpiece of the event was a presentation by Michelle Batt and Jessica Lopez of the Lancaster Bail Fund, outlining their case for reducing reliance on incarceration.
Ongoing debate
Since the launch of planning for the correctional facility, activists have contended that its scale is too big. They say that by reforming bail practices and expanding social services, the county could dramatically reduce detention numbers, allowing a smaller jail to be built, saving millions of dollars and improving social welfare and public safety.
The Reimagine Justice Lancaster team previously requested a working group this spring. This time around, it plans to present a new report by the Vera Institute of Justice to bolster its case.
Along with asking for the working group, Perkowski said the coalition will petition for the following changes:
- A requirement that magisterial district judges document in writing the rationales for their bail decisions, in order to provide data for review and analysis
- Increased pretrial support for defendants, including prompt access to public defenders a texting option to receive notification of court dates;
- An expansion of social services across the board, including mental health and addiction treatment, job training and housing assistance.
In May, the county’s president judge, Judge David Ashworth, said categorically that the coalition’s request for a working group is impossible to grant.
He said the courts share the activists’ interest in minimizing incarceration, but outside groups are not entitled to any say in setting court policy. That is solely the judiciary’s responsibility, as defined by statute and the state Supreme Court.
He reiterated that view at this month’s Prison Board meeting in comments on the review of court administration that Judge Merril Spahn is leading. The goal is to move low-level cases more quickly, as a way to improve efficiency overall.
“To be clear, this is not something that is subject to a community-based committee that has input,” he said.
Similarly, he has pushed back against the idea that wholesale bail reforms can be implemented at local discretion. While judges have some discretion case by case, bail policy as such is set by state law and by Pennsylvania Supreme Court guidance.
The county commissioners have said they welcome community input on the correctional facility’s design. They have cautioned, though, that they do not set criminal justice or court policy and that the county needs a jail that is large enough to serve adequately for decades.
The Reimagine Justice Lancaster coalition is going to keep advocating, Perkowski said, and he urged the forum audience to get involved. Event organizers passed out a paper of recommended action steps to take over the next 10 hours, 10 days and 10 months. Some of the suggestions: Engage with criminal justice activist groups; discuss the issues with family and friends; attend county commissioner meetings and Prison Board meetings, continue to learn.
“We want to see you,” Perkowski said. “… We want you to keep reading and keep studying. We need to keep showing up.”
Commissioner Alice Yoder, who attended Tuesday’s meeting, said that Reimagine Justice Lancaster was one of the first groups she met with when she took office in January. She said she’s interested in working with it to explore criminal justice best practices, while being mindful that responsibility for the system lies with law enforcement and the courts.
A major concern, though, is timing, she said. The existing prison is long overdue for replacement, and the county can’t afford to delay moving forward with its successor.
The case for rethinking detention policy
“Incarceration is not the answer,” said Michelle Batt.
That was the crux of the presentation she and Jessica Lopez made Tuesday evening at “Truth & Justice; Racial Equity & the $400 Million Jail,” a community forum on Lancaster County criminal justice and its new jail project.
Batt is the president of the Lancaster Bail Fund and an outspoken advocate for bail reform. It’s unjust and counterproductive, she says, that a majority of County Prison inmates are awaiting trial; instead, it’s time for a different approach, one that will allow for a much smaller, less expensive successor facility to be built.
The Bail Fund is a partner in Reimagine Justice Lancaster, a coalition seeking a new approach to local criminal justice practices. Batt founded the Bail Fund in 2021; Lopez, who spent 10 months in state prison for her role in the demonstrations outside Lancaster’s police station in the wake of the 2020 police shooting of Ricardo Munoz, is the nonprofit’s lead advocate and community organizer.
Last month, the county’s design team released a draft schematic design for a facility with 994 beds. Its preliminary square footage and cost figures suggest an overall budget of $385 million to $407 million. The draft is awaiting action by the county commissioners.
While the commissioners have tentatively endorsed an initial build of around 1,000 beds, they have not finalized that decision. At this month’s Prison Board meeting, county commissioners Josh Parsons and Ray D’Agostino said they want to take more time to consider options before moving forward.
At that meeting, District Attorney Heather Adams expressed reservations about going small, saying the county does not want to end up with an undersized facility in the event of a crime wave or another pandemic.
President Judge David Ashworth has said categorically that bail guidelines are set at the state level, not locally, and that while any individual bail ruling may be challenged in court, the system is not subject to change based on community input. Basing a size decision on hoped-for policy changes is misguided, he said.
On Tuesday, Batt took issue with Adams’ and Ashworth’s statements. The size of the local incarcerated population depends fundamentally on policy choices, she said, and those choices can and should be changed.
At the forum, she and Lopez laid out their case in detail, using information drawn from Prison Board meetings, planning documents for the new facility and research by organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Vera Institute and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Their slides are available here. (PDF)
Jail is expensive, Batt and Lopez said: About a quarter of county property taxes go to support the County Prison’s operating budget. That’s $23 out of every $100 that working families pay the county “so they can incarcerate our loved ones,” Lopez said.
County Prison statistics consistently show that about 70% of the population consists of pretrial detainees — that is, individuals who have not been convicted and sentenced. The majority are being held on non-violent charges and parole violations, according to a Prison Policy Initiative analysis of local data. Pretrial liberty is supposed to be the norm, with limited exceptions for good cause, Batt said.
The pandemic demonstrated that the prison population can be drawn down without causing an increase in the crime rate, she and Lopez said.
Spending any time at all in jail can lead the loss of one’s job and housing, Batt said. The impact is felt by detainees, their families and children, and community-wide.
“You ruin somebody’s life, you think they’re going to get better?” she asked.
Then there’s the equity aspect. The County Prison’s population is disproportionately poor and non-White, and disproportionately made up of people with substance abuse disorders, mental health problems. Many are homeless. Black and Latino inmates are held longer at the County Prison than White ones and Black defendants are charged higher bail.
What’s the alternative? Expansion of social service Batt and Lopez said, and commitment to using incarceration only as a last resort.
“We want something different,” Lopez said.
