Prison Reform on Life Support

The effort to reform Pennsylvania's sentencing structures and alleviate its overcrowded prisons hangs on by a thread.

As a recap, Pennsylvania is in the process of building four new prisons by 2013. The construction costs alone will be more than $800 million, and the annual costs to maintain them will be $50 million each.

To relieve the current situation, the commonwealth has sent 2,000 prisoners to Michigan and Virginia, where they have beds available. The secretary of the Department of Corrections here says that the new prisons will be filled soon after they open, based on current projections.

Last month, the Pennsylvania Senate passed a package of three bills sponsored by Senator Stewart Greenleaf (R-Montgomery County) that would reform sentencing guidelines (SB 1145), make it possible for certain non-violent offenders to leave prison early, based on certain conditions (SB 1161), and create alternatives for technical parole violators, parolees who violate parole but don't commit a new crime (SB 1275).

In the last few years, 20 states have reduced their prison populations by setting up similar structures, and those states, by and large, have not seen an increase in crime. Why not Pennsylvania?

The House Judiciary Committee scheduled SB 1161 for a vote on June 23, as Chairman Thomas Caltagirone (D-Berks County) has been a vocal supporter of reform and relief to the corrections system. The plan was to amend the bill to add pieces of the other two bills into it. However, an error in drafting the amendment forced the committee to hold the bill.

SB 1161 was rescheduled for June 29. At that meeting, Dauphin County District Attorney Edward Marsico, who is president of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, and a lobbyist for the Attorney General's office were given 40 minutes to address the committee and lay out their concerns with the bill. The concerns of the DAs and the AG lit a fuse under some reps, who piled on and offered their own problems with the bill. Lobbyists for the Department of Corrections and for the Board of Probation and Parole were also given a few minutes to speak. (DOC supports the reform, saying it could save us at least $60 million per year, and P&P is conditionally unopposed, with some minor changes.)

As a result of that ruckus, SB 1161 was held over again. Later that week, the legislature finished the 10-11 state budget, and legislators beat feet out of town.

The next opportunity for the House Judiciary Committee to consider this legislation will be after Labor Day, when both chambers return for a few weeks of session before Election Day. If the bill is amended, as expected, passes out of committee, and finds its way through the House, it will still have to go back to the Senate to vote on what's known as concurrence, when a chamber takes up a bill that it already passed but was altered by the other chamber.

I'm worried that prison reform may be dead for this year and maybe the next four years. This legislative session officially ends in November, and there will be only a few more weeks of session. A House staffer who is close to the action is convinced they can get it done. I hope he's right, and I'm wrong.

Andy in Harrisburg

PA House on Teen Sex: Incarcerate, Not Educate???

Earlier this week, the state House passed legislation, House Bill 2189, to create a new crime called "sexting." Sexting is when someone, often a teenager (although apparently senior citizens and pro athletes are doing it, too), sends photos of him- or herself in various stages of undress or engaged in sexual activity to another person or persons via electronic communication. HB 2189 makes it a misdemeanor for a minor to engage in sexting if the photos involve nudity and were sent for the purpose of sexual stimulation. It's a summary offense if the photo was sent to one other person and the sender had a reason to believe that the recipient wanted to receive the photo, e.g. the teenage couple sharing pics with each other.

Under this bill, the transmission or dissemination of photos of a minor engaged in sex acts, including transmitting a photo of one's self, could still be prosecuted under the felony child pornography statute.

Look, let's face it, teenagers are going to dumb things. They're at an age where they are increasingly aware of their sexuality, and, at the same time, their brains are at a stage of development where they don't yet have the ability to stop irrational behavior 100% of the time.

You show me an adult who didn't do foolish things as a teen, and I'll show you an adult with amnesia.

HB 2189 is simply wrong-headed. Turning our kids into criminals for their clumsy behavior is cruel. Addressing teen misbehavior is a job for parents and educators, not prosecutors.

And the bill is based on the false premise, stoked by some reps and district attorneys, that all sexting by minors is currently a felony, a point that is repeated, ad nauseum, by the media. In fact, if the photos only involve nudity and the production and distribution of the photos is consensual, it's protected expression under the First Amendment.

Fittingly, there is a bill to ensure that teen sexuality is addressed in a constructive fashion. House Bill 1163, the Healthy Youth Act, would set minimum standards on sex education for Pennsylvania's public schools. HB 1163 would guarantee that students receive medically-accurate sex ed. The curricula that would pass muster under this bill would emphasize that abstinence is the only 100% effective of way to stop pregnancy and the transmission of STDs and would teach kids science-based information about contraception.

House Bill 1163 is neatly tucked away in the House Appropriations Committee, and many observers think that's exactly where it's going to stay because the chairman of the Senate Education Committee, Senator Jeffrey Piccola, has said that he won't consider the bill.

So to recap, the state House has passed a bill to turn kids into criminals for their clumsy sexual behavior and is simultaneously burying a bill to constructively teach kids about their sexuality, with the Senate Education Committee chairman as an accomplice.

In a word, this is a disgrace.

Andy in Harrisburg

(The poster above comes from a series of hilarious sex ed posters posted on Huffington Post earlier this week.)

I'm Just a Bill to Ban the Shackling of Pregnant Inmates

On Tuesday, the state House passed a bill to ban shackling of inmates during childbirth in the commonwealth's prisons and in county jails. The state Senate previously passed the legislation, so it heads to Governor Rendell for his signature, which is expected.

The reaction we usually get when we talk about this bill is shock that it's even necessary, but Pennsylvania would become only the eighth state to ban this cruel practice by statute. A few states also ban it by policy, as does the federal Bureau of Prisons and the federal Marshalls Service.

Hopefully you don't need this blog post to convince you why this bill is needed. To read our arguments, you can check out our press release after Tuesday's vote and also see the memos we submitted in support of the bill at our legislation page.

What I really want to write about is the process on how this happened. Numerous legislators from both parties and from both chambers played a role in getting SB 1074 to the governor's desk. If any one of them had balked, the bill would have died. It's very difficult to get legislation passed, even on a slam dunk issue like this one.

Consider the impact of these legislators:

Senator Daylin Leach. Senator Leach is the primary sponsor of SB 1074 and advocated for his bill. That should be a given, but often legislators introduce legislation but don't lobby for it. Senator Leach did that.

Senator Stewart Greenleaf. Senator Greenleaf is the powerful chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. (Leach is the Democratic minority chairman of that committee.) Like all chairmen, Greenleaf makes decisions about what bills will be considered by the committee. When Leach asked Greenleaf to consider SB 1074, Greenleaf was willing to do that.

Rep. Thomas Caltagirone. Rep. Caltagirone is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and ensured that the bill got out of his committee. In addition, when Caltagirone became concerned that the bill might not get a vote in the House, he amended the language into another bill in his committee. That set off a chain of events that got the bill on the House floor.

Rep. Babette Josephs. Rep. Josephs personally advocated with House leadership to get SB 1074 before the full House. Two days later, it was on the House floor. (Full disclosure, Rep. Josephs is a member of the board of our Greater Philadelphia chapter.)

Senator Dominic Pileggi and Rep. Todd Eachus. The majority leaders of their respective chambers saw to it that the bill did get a vote before their members.

Like a clock missing a gear, if any one of these steps had not occurred, the bill would have stopped.

For the record, if this bill is signed by the governor, it will be the first bill in the 2009-10 session supported by the ACLU of PA that has become law. For now, no bill we oppose has become law. This classic Schoolhouse Rock cartoon illustrates why that is.



Andy in Harrisburg

Support students' right to medically accurate information

Guest Blogger

by Rev. Dr. Beverly Dale
General Minister and President, Christian Association at the University of Pennsylvania


In a time when incivility is all too present in public discourse and lawmaking gets bogged down in divisiveness, some Republican and Democratic representatives in Harrisburg are finding common ground on a difficult topic - how to protect the sexual health of our young people. We believe as a clergy that our society has a moral imperative to provide medically accurate information to our young adults in order to keep them safe. House Bill 1163, the Healthy Youth Act, holds great promise in that it will not only teach them to abstain from premature sexual behavior, but will also dispel misleading stereotypes and correct the misinformation that harms our young people. With one in four teen girls already infected with sexually transmitted infections, this education is sorely needed.

We minister to families, oftentimes through their times of struggle, and we know firsthand the difficulties some young people have face growing up, especially through the teen years. Passage of this bill will help reduce the ignorance that contributes to the 23,000 teen pregnancies annually in this state and potentially reduce the number of abortions in rate. Moreover, the immediate passage of HB 1163 will help families and young adults in their decision-making processes by giving them the necessary tools.

With bipartisan support, the legislators have developed a bill to maximize the freedom of school boards and parents by allowing local school boards to determine their own sex education curriculum, as long as it is grounded in scientific and evidence based data. In addition, it allows parents to opt out should they choose to provide the sex education to their children themselves. In our view this develops a win-win legislative package without compromising our youth.

At no cost to the state and little cost to local schools, our legislators have found a way to do the right thing for Pennsylvania families. This is something all of us can support. It sends a message that in this state, we care about our young people enough to protect them. And that is what family values are all about.

Take action: tell your representative to vote YES on the Healthy Youth Act!

ACLU Lobbies for Sex Education, Commonsense

Perhaps it’s axiomatic to assert that all is political in the world of politics. But, the health of our young people should not and cannot be something we allow to fall victim to politicization.

On May 24, the ACLU joined Women’s Way and Planned Parenthood to lobby in support of Rep. Chelsa Wagner’s Healthy Youth Act (HB 1163) – a comprehensive sex education bill aimed at reducing teen pregnancy rates and alleviating a health crisis in which 1 in 4 young women is afflicted with a sexually transmitted infection (STI). Accompanying the lobbying effort was a press conference held in the Capitol Rotunda at lunch time, in which Rep. Wagner and a Professor of Pediatric Medicine, Dr. Rollyn Ornstein, spoke passionately about the dire need to pass this comprehensive legislation.

Wagner’s bill would ensure that the state adopts a minimum standard for teaching sex education and presents students with facts regarding sexuality. That the bill needs to be passed is a no-brainer. Right now Pennsylvania does not maintain any standard concerning the teaching of sex education, and many districts still adhere to antiquated abstinence-only-until-marriage programs – programs that have been proven ineffective, are inherently naïve, and serve to sustain a population of young people that are uneducated regarding sexual health.

Throughout the day, lobbyists from the three aforementioned organizations spoke to numerous legislators from both parties and urged them to vote in favor of the bill. Each of us took turns dispelling myths surrounding comprehensive sex education, corroborating the existing evidence in support of it and providing anecdotal information to illustrate the facts. Nearly every legislator with whom we spoke agreed that teen pregnancy and the transmission of STIs are problems that merit action.

However, at least to some, the notion of improving the health of our children through public education is not so commonsensical. Even though 83% of Pennsylvanians support the teaching of comprehensive sex education in schools, some legislators refuse to agree that schools should play a role in educating students about healthy choices. We heard repeatedly that parents should be teaching their children about sex. While few would disagree, it is also imperative that schools teach comprehensive sex education to supplement what students learn at home, reinforce healthy behaviors taught by parents, ensure students are provided with up-to-date and medically accurate information, and create communicative pathways through which students can more openly speak to their parents about sex.

The bottom line is that this bill is crucial and not something intended to engender political rancor between two opposing sides. Instead, this bill seeks to offer a commonsense solution to something both sides identify as a problem. More importantly, it will guarantee that students are endowed with real, factual education. The more factual information young people receive about ways to remain healthy and safe, the healthier and safer they’ll be.


-Adam in Philly

Potty Mouths, Steer Clear of Pennsylvania

Cross posted at Blog of Rights

If you have a potty mouth, stay away from the Keystone State. It turns out that police in Pennsylvania have delicate sensibilities. A recent ACLU of Pennsylvania Right to Know Law request revealed that in a one-year period, the Pennsylvania State Police issued over 770 disorderly conduct citations for profanity or profane gestures. That's two citations a day. Illegal citations, I should emphasize, as the courts have made it very clear that profanity, unlike obscenity, is constitutionally protected speech.

On Wednesday, the ACLU of Pennsylvania filed two lawsuits against the Pennsylvania State Police and the Mahanoy City Police of Schuylkill County for issuing disorderly conduct citations to two Pennsylvania residents for using profanity. Our lawsuits argue that profanity and profane gestures are constitutionally protected speech.

Much of the problem stems from the fact that there is a huge difference between the legal definition of obscenity, which is illegal, and profanity, which is not. In legal terms, the pornography in your local porn store doesn't even qualify as obscene, much less dropping the F-bomb in front of an officer of the law. Only very graphic or extremely violent sexual acts intended to arouse a sexual response qualify as obscenity. It's understandable that average citizens might not know the difference, but people whose job it is to defend the law should know what the law actually means.

While many people find this case understandably humorous, the consequences of these citations are not so funny. In one case (PDF), our client called a passing motorcyclist she knew an "asshole" after he deliberately swerved as if to hit her and shouted an insult at her. That same day, she reported the incident to the state police, who proceeded to mail her a disorderly conduct citation for swearing. The citation noted that she could face as much as 90 days in jail and a fine up to $300. She was eventually found not guilty — after hiring a lawyer to defend her. In the months leading up to her hearing, our client, a mother of three young children, constantly worried that she might be separated from her family because of the citation.

Unfortunately, the zeal for citing folks for profanity isn't limited to the state police. In the past few years, the ACLU of Pennsylvania has successfully defended about a dozen individuals against similar charges, including most recently a Scranton woman, Dawn Herb, who swore at her clogged toilet in her home and a Pittsburgh man, David Hackbart, who flipped off a police officer in a dispute over a parking space.

Is it poor manners to swear like a sailor? Definitely. Is it a crime? Definitely not.

Sara in Philly

PA Law Enforcement Says, "No, Gracias," to AZ-style law in PA

Here's a blog post that just about writes itself. We know that passing House Bill 2479, Rep. Daryl Metcalfe's Arizona-style immigration bill, would be terrible for law enforcement in Pennsylvania. But I've been worried that law enforcement would not speak up in opposition.

Well, there's no need to worry. The media has been querying police and prosecutors on their feelings on the legislation, and the consensus has been overwhelmingly against it. Some choice cuts.

"I think the way we're doing it right now is working for us. Quite frankly, we have our hands full doing what we do now...Walking up to someone from the way they look or their speech or manner of dress, I think it's wrong. I think it's a slippery slope, and I think it's dangerous." --Chief Leo McCarthy, Moon Township (Allegheny County) Police Department, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, May 8

"At this point, Pennsylvania doesn't need any additional legislation to address the problem because it's just not at that level here in Pennsylvania." --Mary Beth Buchanan, former U.S. Attorney, Pittsburgh Tribune Review

"(A)nother unfunded mandate for local government, for local law enforcement." --Stephen A. Zappalla, Jr., Allegheny County District Attorney, Pittsburgh Tribune Review

"Some of the people who come up with these ideas, I almost think I know what they're trying to say. It's inexcusable. To me, it's, 'Anybody who's not white might be an illegal immigrant.' That's what I'm getting out of that. It's offensive. People who never come into contact with any kind of immigrants make a lot of assumptions on archaic stigmas, and it's frustrating." --Chief Keith Sadler, Lancaster Police Department, The Intelligencer Journal, May 5

"I don't know that the system is broken right now. There is a process in place through which we can verify a person's status." --Chief Mark Pugliese, West Hempfield Township (Lancaster County) Police Department, The Intelligencer Journal

"There's going to have to be an immense amount of training in how to make correct determinations, and in the area of documentation, especially counterfeit. That's going to be a huge market...This commonwealth has cut back funding for police training immensely. Whose dime is this going to be on? If it fell upon me, I need this budget for other things." --Chief William L. Harvey, Ephrata Borough (Lancaster County) Police Department, Intelligencer Journal

"From what I've seen, it would put a terrible burden on a district attorney and his staff - especially a smaller DA." --Shawn Wagner, District Attorney, Adams County, Hanover Evening Sun, May 9

"They might be here illegally and taking someone's job, but when you compare that with someone who has assaulted someone and left them in a vegetative state, you know where I have to put my resources." --Tom Kearney, District Attorney, York County, Hanover Evening Sun

Well said.

Andy in Harrisburg