Congressional Record, Volume 156 Issue 71 (Wednesday, May 12, 2010)

[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 71 (Wednesday, May 12, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3635-S3639]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

CRISIS IN THE PHILADELPHIA CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, in a four-part series titled ``Justice:
Delayed, Dismissed, Denied,'' published in December 2009, the
Philadelphia Inquirer reported on the failure of the Philadelphia
criminal justice system to provide fair and speedy justice. ``It is a
system that too often fails to punish violent criminals, fails to
protect witnesses, fails to catch thousands of fugitives, fails to
decide cases on their merits--fails to provide justice.'' ⁱ
Given that Philadelphia has the highest violent crime rate among the 10
largest cities in the United States, this is an urgent problem which
Senator Specter has worked hard to address.
In the past 5 months, Senator Specter has taken a leadership role by
holding three Senate field hearings, bringing together the experts and
key players in the criminal justice system to work collaboratively to
find solutions to these problems. He has sought and obtained funding
for the U.S. Marshals Service's Fugitive Task Force to provide
assistance in locating and arresting Philadelphia's fugitives. Finally,
he has introduced and supported significant legislation to better
protect State witnesses, to fund State witness protection programs, and
to fund State fugitive recovery efforts and the entry of State warrants
into the national warrant database.

[[Page S3636]]

Using statistics from the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania
Courts and the Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, the
Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Philadelphia, among large urban
counties, has the Nation's lowest felony conviction rate. For most big
cities the conviction rate is 50 percent but for Philadelphia the
conviction rate is only 20 percent, and that rate has been steadily
declining over time. While the city's rate of conviction for murder is
excellent--82 percent compared to the U.S. average of 71 percent--for
other violent felonies it is abysmal: Nearly 2/3 of those charged with
violent crime offenses walk free of all charges; Only 1 in 10 people
charged with gun assaults is found guilty of that charge; Only 1 in 5
accused armed robbers is convicted of that charge; Only 1 in 4 accused
rapists is convicted of rape; One-half arrested for possession of
illegal handguns beat the gun charges; and of the 4,500 who reported
being robbed at gun point, only 200, or 4 percent of individuals were
convicted.
The Philadelphia Inquirer identified a number of systemic failings as
contributing factors to this crisis, including increasing incidents of
witness intimidation; exploding criminal caseloads incentivizing judges
to dismiss cases rather than to try them (of the violent crime cases in
2006 and 2007 disposed without a conviction, 92 percent were dropped or
dismissed and only 8 percent of defendants were found not guilty); the
number of judges not keeping pace with the substantial increase in
criminal case filings (since 1989 the criminal docket has increased by
51 percent but the number of judges has not changed; not surprisingly
the number of dismissals has doubled). Additional contributing factors
include trial delays caused by defense attorneys' delay tactics, which
cause witnesses to stop coming to court and cases to be dismissed;
dismissals because inmates and/or police officers routinely fail to
timely appear in court; and a broken bail system causing Philadelphia
to have 47,000 fugitives and to be tied with Newark, New Jersey as
having the highest fugitive rate in the Nation.ⁱⁱ
Senator Specter's significant actions to address this crisis and to
restore confidence in the Philadelphia criminal justice system are
detailed below.
Witness intimidation and violent crime are problems that Senator
Specter has worked on for decades, since he was an assistant district
attorney and later district attorney in Philadelphia, and on the
Judiciary Committee, where he has served since 1981 when he was first
sworn in as a U.S. Senator.
As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Crime and Drugs Subcommittee,
Senator Specter chaired a field hearing in Philadelphia on witness
intimidation at the State and local level on January 8,
2010.ⁱⁱⁱ This hearing brought together experts and leaders
in the field to help find solutions for this pervasive and serious
problem. At the hearing, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles
Ramsey, as well as Michael Coard, a respected Philadelphia defense
attorney, and Associate Professor Richard Frei, an academic, testified.
Two parents, each of whom lost a child to gun violence, also testified.
Barbara Clowden testified that her son Eric Hayes, then 17 years old,
was killed just 2 days before he was to testify in an arson trial in
Philadelphia. Because Eric's life had been threatened, in January 2006
his family entered into the city's witness relocation program.
Eventually the money from the program ran out and they had to relocate
to northeast Philadelphia, where Eric was murdered. No one, to date,
has been convicted of Eric's murder.

Ted Canada, a Philadelphia resident and SEPTA bus driver, also
testified. In 2005, his son Lamar Canada was shot 12 times and killed
over an alleged gambling debt.^iv One witness to the
shooting, Johnta Gravitt, then 17 years old, was murdered 10 days after
he testified at the preliminary hearing and identified one of the
shooters. Another witness initially cooperated but after his statement
to the police was publicly posted in his neighborhood identifying him
as a ``snitch,'' he recanted.
The most notorious example of witness intimidation in Philadelphia
involves Kaboni Savage, a drug kingpin who was federally indicted last
April on racketeering and murder charges for retaliating against his
former drug associate, Eugene Coleman. Coleman had agreed to testify
against Savage in a Federal trial. The Federal charges allege that to
retaliate for this, Savage orchestrated the firebombing of Coleman's
family home on the 3200 block of North 6th Street in Philadelphia
during the early morning hours of October 9, 2004. Killed in the fire
were Coleman's mother, Marcella Coleman, age 54; Coleman's infant son,
Damir Jenkins, 15 months old; Marcella Coleman's niece, Tameka Nash,
age 34, and her daughter, Khadjah Nash, age 10; Marcella Coleman's
grandson, Tahj Porchea, age 12; and a family friend, Sean Rodriguez,
age 15. In a conversation secretly recorded by court-authorized
wiretaps, Savage explained how witness intimidation works, ``Without
the witnesses, you don't have no case?. . . . No witness, no
crime.''^v
The witness intimidation problem is exacerbated by internet sites,
such as whosarat.com, which expose the identities of witnesses and
government informants. Gang members and criminals are becoming more
computer savvy. They use the internet to find out who may be a
cooperating witness by accessing public court dockets. They also access
other sites to locate these individuals. With this information obtained
anonymously through the Internet, gang members and other criminals can
easily threaten or harm witnesses, as well as their family
members.^vi
The ``stop snitching'' culture in Philadelphia has taken hold even
among law abiding people. Years ago, popularized in movies and
television, the code of silence started with organized crime and
applied only to its members who used intimidation and highly visible
acts of retaliation against those who broke it to maintain adherence to
the code. Today that code of silence has involved into a popular and
pervasive stop snitching culture.^vii
It has expanded to include threats against people who have no stake
in a specific case and it is now directed toward anyone providing
information to authorities. It has been strengthened by the strong
distrust and alienation many urban youth have toward the police. It was
shown at the hearing that the more people perceive the justice system
to be biased, ineffective or corrupt, the more likely it is that they
will resort to community self-protection and enforcement.
As reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer on December 14, 2009,
``[p]rosecutors, detectives, and even some defense attorneys say
witness fear has become an unspoken factor in virtually every court
case involving violent crime in Philadelphia. Reluctant or terrified
witnesses routinely fail to appear in court, and when they do, they
often recant their earlier testimony or statement to police.''
^viii One Philadelphia assistant district attorney is quoted
in the article as saying that at least one witness in every murder
trial recants. At times, the local prosecutors are forced to lock up
witnesses on material witness warrants to assure their appearance at
trial.^ix
In Philadelphia between 2006 and 2008, the District Attorney's Office
filed witness intimidation charges against approximately 1,000
individuals. Their conviction rate on these charges, however, is only
28 percent.^x
Criminal trials cannot proceed unless there are witnesses, and if
witnesses are subject to intimidation or even worse, murdered, criminal
cases cannot go forward. And unless witnesses can be assured they will
be protected, the problem of witness intimidation cannot be expected to
go away. Philadelphia's witness relocation program was cut from a high
of $988,000 in 2006-07 to $747,000 in 2008-09. On average last year the
program spent $11,000 per witness. Compare that with the Federal
witness protection program that spends on average $150,000 for each
witness in the Federal program. More money is needed to fund
Philadelphia's witness relocation program.
It is imperative that people be protected if they step forward and
provide information to law enforcement. As Philadelphia Police
Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey testified at the subcommittee hearing,
``the only way we're going to deal with crime in communities is when
the community steps forward, but they have to feel comfortable in doing
so and know they have support.'' ^xi
To better protect State witnesses from intimidation, threats, and
violence, and to send loud and clear the

[[Page S3637]]

message that serious penalties will be imposed on those who dare to
obstruct justice in our country Senator Specter on February 23, 2010,
introduced The State Witness Protection Act of 2010,'' S. 3017. The
bill ensures that State witnesses will receive the same protections
from actions of intimidation and retaliation that Federal witnesses
have under Federal law. Making this a Federal offense and bringing in
the FBI to investigate, as Commissioner Ramsey testified, ``would make
a tremendous difference and make people think twice before they''
engaged in witness intimidation. Commission Ramsey explained it this
way:

I just think the whole environment or atmosphere when you
go into a Federal court versus a local court is just somewhat
different, and [defendants] haven't been exposed to it that
often. I just think it has an impact in the feedback I've
gotten from people on both sides, whether it's another law
enforcement agency or from a person who's been in the
criminal justice system. They do not want to go into Federal
court. (Tr. at 16).^xii

The bill tracks the language of the Federal witness tampering and
intimidation statutes, 18 U.S.C. Sec. Sec. 1512 and 1513, and provides
the same penalties for crimes against State witnesses as now are
provided for crimes against Federal witnesses. For State court
proceedings, the bill makes it a Federal offense to kill, physically
harm, threaten to physically harm, harass, or intimidate, or offer
anything of value to, a State court witness or victim if done with the
intent to influence another person's testimony; to induce another to
withhold testimony or records, alter or destroy evidence, evade legal
process, or be absent from a State proceeding if that person has been
summoned by legal process; to hinder or prevent a person from providing
information to law enforcement; or to retaliate against anyone for
being a witness or for providing testimony or information to law
enforcement.

Federal jurisdiction is established by prosecuting only cases where
there are communications in furtherance of the offense by mail,
interstate or foreign commerce by any means, including computer,
interstate or foreign travel in furtherance of the commission of the
offense, or the use of weapons which have been shipped or transported
across State lines. Any attempt or conspiracy to commit these same
offenses is also illegal and subject to the same penalties. The bill
also provides for specific sentencing guideline enhancements for all
obstruction offenses.
To further address the growing problem of witness intimidation,
Senator Specter cosponsored, and voted out of Senate Judiciary
Committee on March 22, 2010, the Witness Security and Protection Grant
Program Act of 2010, H.R. 1741, a bill which authorizes $150 million in
competitive grants over 5 years to State and local governments to
establish witness assistance programs. Specifically, the bill requires
the Attorney General to make competitive grants to State and local
governments to establish and maintain short-term witness protection
programs for court proceedings involving homicide, violent felonies,
serious drug offenses, gangs, and/or organized crime. It also requires
the Attorney General to collect data and develop best practices--
witness safety, short-term and permanent witness relocation, and
financial and housing assistance--from the grantees and report this
information back to Congress, States and other relevant entities. This
legislation passed the House with an overwhelming bipartisan vote of
412-11 in June 2009. The bill is also supported by the National
Governors Association, the National Conference of Mayors, the National
District Attorney Association, and the National Center for Victims of
Crime. It is currently pending action on the Senate floor.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia bail system
is broken.^xiii For both the Court of Common Pleas and the
Municipal Courts in Philadelphia, there are 48,511 cases in fugitive
status and 39,110 individual fugitives. These numbers do not include
probation absconders which, if added, would make the total individual
fugitive number 46,839.^xiv
According to Bureau of Justice Statistics report from 2004,
Philadelphia is tied with Newark, NJ, as having the Nation's highest
fugitive felony rate of 11 percent. The problem is compounded because
there are only 51 officers in the Warrant Unit,^xv which is
assigned the task of rounding up fugitives. That means each officer has
a 900 fugitive case load.^xvi The problem is further
compounded by the fact that fugitives, after they are caught, are
routinely released again on bail and no bail money, once again, is
collected. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the city is owed $1
billion in bail monies which cannot be collected because the Clerk of
Quarter Sessions kept no computerized records.^xvii
To address the failure of law enforcement to track down and capture
criminal fugitives, Senator Specter convened another Senate Judiciary
Subcommittee field hearing on January 19, 2010, titled, ``Exploring
Federal Solutions to the State and Local Fugitive Crisis.''
^xviii Seth Williams, the recently elected district attorney
for the city of Philadelphia, testified at the hearing. Also testifying
at the hearing were John Patrignani, the Acting U.S. Marshal for the
Eastern District of Pennsylvania; David Preski, the Chief of the Pre-
Trial Service Division and the person in charge of the Warrant Unit;
and Roy G. Weise, the Senior Adviser for the FBI's Criminal Justice
Information Systems and a senior administrator in charge of the
National Criminal Justice Information System, more commonly known as
NCIC, the national warrant database. A representative from the Clerk of
Quarter Sessions also testified. That hearing revealed that
Philadelphia's fugitive problem, though very serious in scope, is not
just a local problem but is in fact a significant national problem.
Nationwide, there are an estimated 2.8 to 3.2 million active Federal,
State, and local outstanding felony warrants. Every day large numbers
of fugitives evade capture because State and local law enforcement
authorities have insufficient resources to find and arrest them. And
even if found, State and local law enforcement authorities often do not
have the funds to pay for the extradition of the fugitive to face
trial. Shockingly, many fugitives are released without prosecution.
Many fugitives go on to commit additional crimes.
The nationwide database operated by the FBI's National Crime
Information Center, NCIC, is missing over half of the country's 2.8 to
3.2 million felony warrants, including warrants for hundreds of
thousands of violent crimes. Fugitives who have fled to another State
will not be caught--even if they are stopped and questioned by the
police on a routine traffic stop--because their warrants have not been
entered into the NCIC database.
In early 2008, the St. Louis Post Dispatch published a series of
articles--affirmed by the Department of Justice--documenting law
enforcement's widespread failure to find and arrest
fugitives.^xix For purposes of the series, ``fugitive''
included un-arrested suspects with pending warrants that law
enforcement cannot find, and those who cannot be found after violating
the rules of their pre-trial detention, probation, or parole. The
articles revealed that the reach of this national problem is extensive
and cited federal estimates from 2 years ago that as many as an
estimated 800,000 to 1.6 million outstanding State or local warrants
are inaccessible to law enforcement outside the State or locality in
which they were issued because the information about the warrants had
not been entered into the NCIC database.
In Philadelphia, while all warrants, including bench warrants, are
entered into a State database, only a few warrants are entered into the
NCIC database. The hearing established a little known fact: that the
Philadelphia Police Department only entered into the NCIC database a
few hundred bench warrants deemed by the District Attorney's Office to
concern extraditable offenses and, surprisingly, the Police Departments
made these entries manually and not by automatic computer
transfers.^xx Thus, those who abscond from criminal
proceedings in Philadelphia and flee to other States likely will not be
captured because information from their warrants was not automatically
entered into the NCIC database.
To make our communities safer by increasing the number of State and
local fugitives arrested and prosecuted, Senator Specter, along with
Senator Durbin, on March 16, 2010, introduced the Fugitive Information
Networked Database Act of 2010, known as the FIND Act, S. 3120. Based
on legislation

[[Page S3638]]

that then-Senator Joe Biden and Senator Durbin introduced in 2008, the
FIND Act bolsters the effectiveness of the NCIC database by providing
grants for local governments to develop and implement warrant systems
that are interoperable with the NCIC database. The bill also provides
funding for authorities to extradite fugitives for prosecution.

Specifically, the FIND Act improves the entry and validation of
State, local and tribal warrants in the NCIC database by authorizing
$10 million for grants each fiscal year 2011 through 2015. It increases
for States, local and Indian tribes the resources available for
extraditing fugitives between States and tribal regions by authorizing
$30 million for grants each fiscal year 2011 through 2015. The bill
also encourage States, local and tribes to reduce the cost of
extradition by using the U.S. Marshals Service's Justice Prisoner and
Alien Transportation Service, JPATS, to transport fugitives back to the
jurisdiction which issued the warrant and requires grant participants
which seek renewal grants to provide detailed reports to ascertain
whether State, local and tribal pretrial release programs are operating
effectively. To make certain that funds are properly spent, the bill
directs GAO to submit a statistical report to the House and Senate
Judiciary Committees on felony warrants issued by State, local, and
tribal governments and entered into the NCIC database, and on the
apprehension and extradition of persons with active felony warrants.
This important legislation is designed to facilitate State and local
data entry into the NCIC database through grants, increase the
extradition of fugitives travelling in interstate commerce and to
ascertain whether pretrial release programs are operating effectively.
The fugitive problem is national in scope, involves individuals
travelling in interstate commerce, and requires Federal solutions.
After the January 19, 2010, field hearing, on February 24, 2010,
Senator Specter wrote to the Director of the U.S. Marshals Service,
USMS, to advise him ``that Philadelphia has the highest violent crime
rate in the United States among the ten largest cities and the highest
felony fugitive rate in the nation,'' and therefore critically needed
additional funding for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania's fugitive
task force. On April 2, 2010, John F. Clark, the Director of the U.S.
Marshals Service, responded to Senator Specter's letter and said that
the agency would expand the Philadelphia regional office by at least 10
marshals and staff to ``work aggressively to address the fugitive
problem in Philadelphia.''
As part of Senator Specter's continued efforts to address the
Philadelphia fugitive crisis, he has made several program funding
requests for fiscal year 2011 to support the USMS and its partners,
including: $1.207 billion for the U.S. Marshals Service, increased
funding for the Edward Byrne memorial justice grants, and $792 million
for the COPS program. Additionally, Senator Specter has requested
report language that would direct $20 million to be used to support the
establishment of a Regional Fugitive Task Force in Philadelphia.
On May 3, 2010, Senator Specter chaired the third and final Judiciary
Crime Subcommittee hearing to bring leaders in the criminal justice
system together to find innovative and cost effective solutions to
improve the quality and efficiency of the criminal justice system in
Philadelphia, as well as for similarly overburdened state criminal
courts.^xxi Lynne M. Abraham, former district attorney for
Philadelphia, Justice Seamus McCaffery, Pennsylvania Supreme Court,
Everett Gillison, deputy mayor for public safety for the city of
Philadelphia, Ellen Greenlee, chief defender, Philadelphia, and
Professor John Goldkamp, chair of the Criminal Justice Department at
Temple University, testified. The hearing emphasized the need for all
the key players--the courts, the prosecutors, the defenders and the
city--to work in a collaborative fashion to find solutions to these
complex and systemic problems. The subcommittee and witnesses explored
the following ideas:
Community based prosecutions and zone courts. Sending police officers
to many different courtrooms is wasteful and inefficient. A simple
solution is reorganizing the criminal courts along geographic lines so
that judges are assigned to handle all cases from a particular police
division. Zone courts are more efficient and lead to fewer dismissal of
cases, fewer trial delays and provide more judicial economy and
accountability.
Improving computer systems for both the District Attorney's Office
and the Defenders Office. This would expedite discovery and permit
faster and more efficient administration of justice. Offices should be
able to have networked case files and operate as a paperless office.
This would require extensive capital investment.
Institute new diversion programs for nonviolent and low risk
offenders.
Establish more specialty treatment courts, such as mental health
courts, veterans courts ^xxii and re-entry courts, to reduce
recidivism.
Reform the bail system. Professor Goldkamp, an expert on
Philadelphia's bail system, recommended improving the pre-trial release
system to one which makes decisions about release and confinement based
on the characteristics of the defendants, not by how much cash they can
post. Risky defendants should be detained, with due-process
protections, but those who do not need confinement to meet their
obligations or those who do not pose that much risk, like most addicted
defendants, should not be jailed. Drug addicted defendants should go to
treatment; mentally ill defendants should be directed to appropriate
support services.
Find effective ways to address the anti-snitch culture, including
public service announcements and community outreach.
The Philadelphia Inquirer's ``Justice: Delayed, Dismissed, Denied''
series rightly identified and proved a number of the systemic failings
in the Philadelphia criminal justice system which have contributed to
Philadelphia having an unacceptably low conviction rate for violent
crimes and an unacceptably high rate of fugitives. Many of these
problems have been around for decades and over the years have only
gotten worse. By using statistics from the Administrative Office of the
Pennsylvania Courts and the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, the
Philadelphia Inquirer convincingly turned a harsh light on what many in
the criminal justice system have known, and what many have chosen to
ignore.
Professor Goldkamp stated at the May 3, 2010, Senate field hearing,
``I think that opportunity comes in at a time of crisis and concern.''
But if the needed changes are not made, Professor Goldkamp said ``the
Philadelphia court system risks being held up nationally as an example
of a dysfunctional court system.'' ^xxiii
Senator Specter noted at the final field hearing that the
Philadelphia Inquirer's series was a ``motivating factor'' in his
working to obtain Federal assistance to local and overburdened courts.
Now is the time for change and Senator Specter--by holding three Senate
field hearings, by seeking and obtaining funding for the U.S. Marshal's
fugitive task force, and finally, by introducing and supporting key
legislation to better protect State witnesses, to fund State witness
protection programs, and to fund State fugitive recovery efforts and
the entry of State warrants into the national warrant database--is
working hard to make those changes.

ENDNOTES

ⁱ ``Justice: Delayed, Dismissed, Denied,'' by
Craig R. McCoy, Nancy Phillips and Dylan Purcell,
Philadelphia Inquirer, December 13, 2009. Available at:
<http://www.philly.com/philly/news/79150347.html>.
ⁱⁱ Id.
ⁱⁱⁱ ``Federal Efforts to Address Witness
Intimidation at the State and Local Level.'' Senate Committee
on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime & Drugs, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, 8 January 2010. Hearing notice available at:
<http://judiciary.senate.gov/
hearings/hearing.cfm?id=4278>.
^iv ``Testimony by Theodore L. Canada.'' Senate
Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime & Drugs,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 8 January 2010. Available at:
<http://judiciary.senate.gov/pdf/1-08-09%20
Canada%20Testimony.pdf>.
^v Nancy Phillips, Craig R. McCoy, and Dylan
Purcell. ``Witnesses fear reprisals, and cases crumble.'' The
Philadelphia Inquirer. 14 December 2009. Available at:
<http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/79196597.html.>
^vi Frei, Richard. ``Witness Intimidation and the
Snitching Project.'' Senate Committee

[[Page S3639]]

on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime & Drugs, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, 8 January 2010. Available at: <http://judiciary
.senate.gov/pdf/1-08-09%20Frei%20Testimony
.pdf>.
^vii Id.
^viii Nancy Phillips, Craig R. McCoy, and Dylan
Purcell. ``Witnesses fear reprisals, and cases crumble.'' The
Philadelphia Inquirer. 14 December 2009. Available at:
<http://www
.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/79196597.html.>
^ix Id.
^x ``Justice: Delayed, Dismissed, Denied,'' by
Craig R. McCoy, Nancy Phillips and Dylan Purcell,
Philadelphia Inquirer, December 13, 2009. Available at:
<http://www.philly.com/philly/news/79150347.html>.
^xi ``Testimony from Police Commissioner Charles
H. Ramsey, Philadelphia Police Department.'' Senate Committee
on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime & Drugs, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, 19 January 2010. Available at: http://
judiciary.senate.gov/pdf/1-08-09%20Ramsey%20Testimony.pdf.
^xii Id.
^xiii ``Violent Criminals Flout Broken Bail
System,'' by Dylan Purcell, Craig R. McCoy and Nancy
Phillips, Philadelphia Inquirer, December 15, 2009. Available
at: <http://www.philly.com/inquirer/special/20091215_
Violent_ Criminals_Flout_Broken_Bail_
System.html>.
^xiv There are many more outstanding fugitive
warrants from Municipal Court than from the Court of Common
Pleas. For example, there are 6,044 individual fugitives on
bench warrants issued by the Philadelphia Court of Common
Pleas compared with the 34,331 individual fugitives on bench
warrants issued by the Philadelphia Municipal Courts.
Statistics are from Terry Bigley, Director of Office of
Network Systems and Office Automation, Department of
Information and Technology Services, for the First Judicial
District of Pennsylvania.
^xv The Warrant Unit is part of the court
system's Pre-trial Services.
^xvi The Philadelphia Police Department does not
have a fugitive squad.
^xvii Indeed, an audit of the Clerk of Quarter
Sessions office released in March 2009 for fiscal years 2008
and 2007 found serious problems--that the office did not
conduct monthly reconciliations for the Cash Bail Account and
the Cash Bail Refund Account, did not forward bank
reconciliations causing $26.8 million to be omitted from the
City's preliminary financial statement, and did not report to
the City a $352.8 million receivable for Fines, Costs and
Restitution, as well as the $1 billion receivable for
forfeited bail. The head of the office, Vivian Miller,
resigned, effective March 31, 2010, and the Philadelphia
Inquirer reported on April 28, 2010 that Philadelphia Mayor
Michael Nutter was moving to abolish the office.
^xviii Hearing notice available at: <http://
judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=
4334>.
^xix Mahr, Joe. ``Free to Flee.'' St. Louis
Dispatch, 2008. Available at: <http://interact
.stltoday.com/mds/news/html/1252>.
^xx When a bench warrant is issued by the
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas and/or Municipal Court in
Philadelphia, it is entered into a state-wide criminal case
management system called CP/CMS by court staff. CP/CMS
electronically transfers that information to the Philadelphia
Police Department (PPD) which, in turn, electronically
transfers the data to CLEAN, the Commonwealth Law Enforcement
Assistance Network database. CLEAN is a computer system used
by the Commonwealth's criminal justice agencies for a variety
of purposes, including searching for outstanding warrants
whenever an individual is detained or taken into custody.
From CLEAN the bench warrant data should be electronically
transferred to NCIC, the FBI's National Crime Information
Center, and to Nlets, the International Justice and Public
Safety Information Sharing Network. However, this is not yet
occurring in Philadelphia. Instead, in Philadelphia all
entries into NCIC are done manually by the Philadelphia
Police Department and only those bench warrants designated by
the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office as extraditable
warrants are entered into NCIC. For a bench warrant to be
extraditable, the ADA must get approval from his/her deputy.
Usually approval is reserved for those offenders who have
significant criminal histories, a number of failures to
appear, and/or serious pending criminal charges.
^xxi ``Helping Find Innovative and Cost Effective
Solutions to Overburdened State Criminal Courts.'' Senate
Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime & Drugs,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 3 March 2010. Hearing notice
available at: (http://judiciary
.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=4558).
^xxii On March 1, 2010 Senator Specter held a
Judiciary Crime Subcommittee field hearing in Pittsburgh on
the need for greater federal resources for specialty
treatment courts for veterans. Following the hearing, Senator
Specter cosponsored the Services, Education, and
Rehabilitation for Veterans Act, known as the SERV Act (S.
902), a bill which authorizes the Attorney General to award
grants up to $25 million over five years to states to develop
Veterans Courts or expand operational drug courts to serve
veterans charged with non-violent offenses.
^xxiii Nancy Phillips and Craig R. McCoy.
``Abraham defends work, criticizes city justice system.'' The
Philadelphia Inquirer 4 May 2010. Available at: <http://www.
philly.com/inquirer/front_ page/20100504_
Abraham_defends_work_ criticizes_city_
justice_system.html>.

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