Inmate population decreased at height of pandemic, then surged
Lehigh County Jail held fewer people during the first nine months of the pandemic as county officials worked to slow the spread of COVID19 by limiting the number of defendants held there, but the prison’s population rebounded by the end of the year, according to an assessment.
The average population of the prison was more than 20% smaller overall in 2020 than the year before and nearly 40% smaller than the largest annual average in the last five years, according to the assessment filed in state Supreme Court by
President Judge Brian Johnson.
The downward trend is a result of strategies to reduce the jail population that were in place before the pandemic, combined with efforts ordered by the Supreme Court, Johnson’s filing says.
But the fact that the number of inmates grew by December to surpass the level at the start of the pandemic in March is troubling, a criminal justice reform advocate said.
“It certainly suggests that more work needs to be done,” said Joseph Welsh, director of the Lehigh Valley Justice Insti
tute.
The assessment was filed in response to the Supreme Court’s order in April, directing county president judges to work with agencies, such as corrections and probation departments and district attorney’s offices, to ensure county jails followed COVID-19 safety protocols, identified people who could be safely released or transferred,and took steps to limit the number of incoming inmates.
It follows the deaths of an inmate in December and a guard last month. Corrections officer Gary Dean died Jan. 19 of complications of a COVID-19 infection he had been battling since December. A 54-year-old man whose identity was not disclosed died New Year’s Eve of complications from an infection after being jailed since October 2019 on charges of aggravated assault, simple assault and harassment and for a parole violation.
“None of us want people in jail who do not need to be there,” Johnson wrote. “That accomplishes nothing. The people who work in the criminal justice system in Lehigh County are acutely aware that justice does not just happen and that, as a human invention, it must be created.”
Before March, when COVID19 was first recorded in Lehigh County, the court and county justice officials used innovative interventions and community resources to limit the number of defendants in the jail, Johnson said. Since the pandemic began, they have also reduced criminal charges where appropriate; reexamined bail and conditions to allow the release of defendants when appropriate; changed court schedules to speed plea agreements; and conducted hearings by video conference to limit the risk of infection, the filing says.
The agencies also reviewed defendants being held to identify those eligible for early parole, bail reductions or plea agreements; increased funding for electronic monitoring for repeat drunken driving offenders; and gave defendants more time off sentences for avoiding misconduct.
The response also examined trends in criminal justice over the last six years, finding that the number of new criminal cases reached a low in 2020 of 4,853 and that the average numbers of people held in the jail and community corrections center were also the lowest in that period at 569 and 43, respectively. The jail has a capacity of 1,363 beds.
While the year-to-year numbers are on a downward trend, the decline in the number of defendants in the jail lasted only a few months in 2020. The daily average number of people held was lowest in May at 469 but steadily increased through December to 637, slightly above the level at the start of the pandemic in March.
A snapshot of the jail population Jan. 26 shows that nearly half of those being held were serving sentences, while slightly more than one-third were being held for trial on felony or misdemeanor offenses either without bail or unable to post bail. The remainder, 14%, were being held on a probation or parole violation or had bail revoked.
Lehigh County Commissioner David Harrington, who is a representative of the commissioners on the county’s Criminal Justice Advisory Board, applauded the transparency of the report and said it shows the court and county agencies have been following the Supreme Court’s order.
The availability of information about the jail population became an issue last year when Lehigh County Controller Matt Pinsley said he had been stonewalled by the court and its appointed bail agency, Lehigh Valley Pretrial Services, when he sought information about inmates being held under bail.
Weathering criticism from District Attorney Jim Martin that he was out of his lane and had no business auditing the courts, Pinsley obtained the data through a private market research and polling firm with money from a reform group, Under the Color of Justice, he said. Pinsley produced a report he said revealed racial and geographic inequities in bail amounts and the ability of defendants to pay.
Pinsley conceded that the study was based on limited information and that more was fully needed to understand how bail was being used.
“That’s part of the investigation — are we capturing information in a way that can be used effectively for taxpayers?” Pinsley said this month.
Welsh, of the Lehigh Valley Justice Institute, said bail is an aspect of criminal justice that bears further discussion in Lehigh County. While Johnson’s report notes efforts by district judges, prosecutors, public defenders and private defense attorneys, pretrial services and the county court judges to determine appropriate bail, Welsh said the monetary aspect of bail should be eliminated for many defendants.
“Requiring cash bail has nothing to do with ensuring that a person appears in court,” Welsh said.
Welsh also said that the jail’s commitment to vaccinate prisoners and staff “when doses become available” is not enough to prevent the virus from taking a toll on prisoners and the community. Welsh said prisoners and staff should be given priority to receive the vaccine and that the community should reject the notion that people in jail don’t deserve to be vaccinated before others.
“It’s not about who people perceive to be good or bad. It’s a community health issue,” Welsh said, noting that as long as COVID-19 continues to spread among prison populations, guards can carry it home to their families and others in the community.