Title
Authorizing City Council's Committee on Public Safety to conduct public hearings to examine and analyze the Community Re-entry process of ex-offenders and persons under authority of the criminal justice system, hear testimony and collect data on related public, private and community based program and policy efforts, so as to determine what actions Council may take to help deliver the resources and support required to operate and promote such programs and policies.
Body
WHEREAS, Incarceration rates in America - an estimated 680 per 100,000, second highest in the world - and the U. S. prison population - now more than 2 million - have experienced massive increases and have reached record levels continuously over the last twenty years, according to numerous studies and reports, resulting in devastating economic and social impact and consequences for millions of individuals and families, hundreds of communities and municipalities, and countless public and private entities; and
WHEREAS, National figures report corrections and associated criminal justice expenditures exceeding $50 billion a year, and in 2003 a record 6.9 million adults in the U.S. were incarcerated, on parole or probation - comprising 3.2 percent of the total population or 1 out of every 32 U. S. citizens, along with a record 4.8 million adults under some form of criminal justice supervision, representing a per annum release rate of more than 774,500 people; and
WHEREAS, Released offenders/prisoners head for and back to a concentrated number of large states, like Pennsylvania, and specific concentrated counties within those states, like Philadelphia, that are already suffering economic and social stress and strain with dwindling budget dollars, and mounting public safety, health, education and employment concerns; and
WHEREAS, These populations are primarily comprised of economically and socially disadvantaged or depressed ind...
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