Everett Gillison- Mayor’s Chief of Staff, City of Philadelphia (cont’d)
As a result of all the reforms and all of the programs and all of the diversions and everything that we have passed out, 80% of the people that are being held are pre-trial and 20% are sentenced. And I think that’s getting close to where the true number should be as far as a sentenced the population of Philadelphia.
This also means we have a lot of very poor people that cannot put themselves in a position to get out while awaiting trial . So our prisons are filled with increasingly either a more violent people, because what we have emphasized is if you are more violent you need to have your time out because that is a clear and present danger to people who are just trying to exist on the street. So if you carry a gun, if you use a gun in the commission of a crime, bail is high. We actually advocate for that in order to give you the opportunity to think about the fact that having a loaded gun on you while you are out doing something you shouldn’t be doing , you’re really only one small trigger pull away from killing someone and your entire life is different. So if we can get you to stop and think about that by kind of putting the mark in the sand. If you’re doing something violent with a gun you have to have a higher bail. Because you’re going to be held which means you’ll be in jail longer then just going back out… As our shooting numbers continue to fall, as our homicide numbers continue to fall we are also starting to see less people on the street actually carrying . Because they don’t want to go away. They don’t want to be sitting in jail waiting for a trial 120, 180 days, half a year before they can get in. It’s a waste. So we’re trying to send a different message to the people on the street. Handle business in a different way.
Everett Gillison- Mayor’s Chief of Staff, City of Philadelphia