Locked down
Supreme Court, legislature must restrict costly and abusive probation detainers
Excessive use of probation detainers is crowding the Allegheny County Jail, aggravating problems caused by chronic staff shortages, and costing taxpayers millions of dollars a year.
At any given time, the jail holds roughly 600 people under court-ordered probation detainers, even though many of them don’t pose a danger or flight risk. That’s nearly 38% of the jail’s 1,600 prisoners, making probation detainers the single biggest cause of incarceration.
Detainers hold probation violators until a judge determines how to handle the case, but prisoners can languish in jail for weeks, even months, without proper hearings. Detainers don’t require proof. They can’t be challenged and lack procedural safeguards.
About 15% of probation detainers in the Allegheny County Jail — or 90 — are for so-called technical violators, who committed no new crime but broke probation rules, such as missing a meeting with their probation officer, not updating their address, or failing to find or maintain employment.
Take Benjamin Duncan as a casein-point. Until Friday, he was in the Allegheny County Jail for more than a year on a probation detainer, following an alleged technical violation of the conditions of his probation: missing a therapy session.
In a jailhouse interview, Mr. Duncan, 26, of Virginia Beach, said his probation officer gave him permission to skip the therapy sessions because they were recreating the trauma of sexual molestation and assault he experienced as a boy.
Nevertheless, Common Pleas Judge Anthony Mariani jailed Mr. Duncan in July of 2021. When Editorial Page Editor Jeffery Gerritt visited him two weeks ago, he said he had no idea when he was getting out.
Mr. Duncan, who is gay, said he wanted to return to Virginia Beach, where he had worked as an emergency dispatch operator, and marry his partner, Richard Featherer.
(Mr. Featherer said Friday the court, unexpectedly, ordered Mr. Duncan’s release Monday. He was scheduled to leave the jail on Friday afternoon.)
The Abolitionist Law Center has filed more than 60 complaints against Judge Mariani to the state Judicial Conduct Board for misconduct, bias and depriving defendants of due process.
Reforming the system
Pennsylvania lacks uniform standards and procedure for handling probation violations, Allison
Frankel of the American Civil Liberties Union said. It’s a statewide problem. Philadelphia has reported probation detainer rates of more than 50% in its jail.
Lengthy periods of probation and parole can set people up for failure, triggering cycles of incarceration, as “any minor or alleged slip can lead to jail,” Ms. Frankel said.
The economic costs, too, are staggering. Incarceration costs for county jails average $34,000 a year for each prisoner, reports Pew Charitable Trusts. (Such costs for Pennsylvania state prisons are more than $40,000 a year.)
The State Supreme Court, which oversees local courts, or the Pennsylvania legislature can help by restricting how probation detainers are used. A New York law that went into effect this year — the Less is More Act — provides a good model. The law eliminates incarceration for most technical violations, requires prompt hearings on alleged probation violations, and provides incentives for reduced time under community supervision.
Constitutional violations
In October, the Abolitionist Law Center and Civil Rights Corps filed a class-action lawsuit challenging Allegheny County’s excessive use of probation detainers. It likely violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,w hich guarantees due process.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of six Allegheny County Jail prisoners, names three Allegheny County judges — Administrative Judge Jill Rangos, Common Pleas Judge Kelly Bigley, and Judge Mariani — as well as Probation Director Frank Scherer and Jail Warden Orlando Harper.
The Allegheny County Jail is flooded with people who don’t belong there, especially given the jail’s chronic staff shortages, accusations of mistreatment, poor medical care and high death rates.
Since March 2020, 17 Allegheny County prisoners have died, including six this year. On March 6, prisoner Gerald Thomas, 26, died while under a probation detainer ordered by Judge Mariani.
No one can say with certainty that probation detainers, directly or indirectly, caused or contributed to any of those deaths. But one thing is certain: Mental illness and addiction already strain the resources of the Allegheny County Jail. The widespread abuse of probation detainers makes those problems even worse.
Creating more humane, cost-effective and reasonable standards and procedures for handling probation violations would better serve justice and the taxpayer.