County council Dems fail in move to oust prison board
MEDIA >> An attempt to disband the county’s Board of Prison Inspectors Wednesday failed on party lines, with Democrats on Delaware County Council supporting the measure and Republicans opposing it.
County Councilman Brian Zidek made the motion to eliminate the fiveperson prison board and replace it with a County Jail Oversight Board. Currently, the prison board consists of three members appointed by the county’s Board of Judges and two appointed by county council.
Zidek was proposing an oversight board that would include the county’s chief executive, Marianne Grace; two Common Pleas Court judges, including the president judge; county Sheriff Jerry L. Sanders Jr.; county Controller Joanne Phillips; county council Chairman John McBlain or his designee; and three citizen members appointed by Grace for three-year terms with approval county council.
In reading the proposal, Zidek stated, “County council has concluded that it is in the best interest of the county to elect to cause the jail to be governed pursuant to the modern statute and to dissolve the Prison Board and implement a County Jail Oversight Board.”
Zidek and Councilman Kevin Madden voted in favor of the motion. McBlain and council Vice Chairman Colleen Morrone and Councilman Michael Culp opposed it.
Zidek described the manner in which the prison board was operating as “wholly unacceptable.” He said any requests by him through email or phone calls to discuss matters have not been answered.
“The current prison board has not been responsive to county council,” he said. “We can do better.”
In addition, he said attorneys representing the prison board have declined to come before county council to discuss about $500,000 in fees. of
The prison board is considering ways to operate the 1,800-prisoner facility, which is currently managed and operated by a private firm, The GEO Group. The contract with the Floridabased private firm expires Dec. 31.
Related to that, the prison board is reviewing requests for proposals for firms interested in running the facility.
It has also hired Phoenix Management to do an analysis of private operation versus a county-run facility. That $100,000 report was initially thought to be finished in the summer and has now been postponed until March, citing gaps in collecting information from other counties.
“In 34 days, we have nobody managing this prison,” Zidek said, adding that the prisoners and hundreds of GEO staff would be impacted by any changes made by the county or by the company at that time.
County officials have said the prison board has its authority through a statute passed by the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1839. Zidek maintained that at that time, prisons were work houses and largely self-sustaining. He also said the 1839 act required prisoners to be held in solitary confinement yet they are not.
He also maintained that the funding of the jail is discretionary on the part of county council, not required and dependent on a review of prison accounts.
However, he said, the “Prison Board does not maintain accounts and requests that the county council fund the operations of the jail in advance based on a contract with a third party that has not been audited in apparent violation of the 1839 Act.”
He also noted that the state Legislature has updated the 1839 Act, including a 2009 amendment to the Pennsylvania Prisons and Parole Code, as well as a provision allowing for counties like Delaware that are governed by a Home Rule Charter to set up a County Jail Oversight Board.
Nether Providence resident Christine Reuther said the Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee, headed by then-state Sen. Dominic Pileggi, R-9 of Chester, Delaware County opted out of the oversight board requirement a year later in a retroactive amendment.
“It was passed and, once again, Delaware County was able to keep its 19th century Prison Board,” she said. However, she claimed that county council has had the authority for the past eight years to change the way the prison is governed.
In making her opposing vote, Morrone explained she needed an opportunity to better review the proposal at hand to give meaningful feedback for the proposal. McBlain contested claims that Zidek were making by stating they were subjective in manner.
In the proposal, Zidek named Jan. 8, 2019, as the date for the Oversight Board to be effective with an organizational meeting to occur within 15 days later. After the motion failed, Zidek said he planned to revive the issue at future council meetings.