Philadelphia City Council 2018 Stated Meetings of Philadelphia City Council, 25 Jan 2018

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From YouTube: Councilman Green on Key Questions Lawmakers Should Address in Seeking Cash Bail Reform 1-25-2018

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From the Stated Meeting of Philadelphia City Council held Thursday, January 25, 2018:

Citing his experience as an ADA, Councilman Derek Green (At Large) discusses the questions he feels lawmakers should address in addressing cash bail reform.

This was in response to a resolution introduced by Councilman Curtis Jones, Jr. (4th District) earlier in the session calling for reform of the cash bail system.

Read the resolution: http://bit.ly/2DB1Io1

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Ra's Excalibur Green bank accounts, president I'm gonna join my colleagues in saluting counseling Jones for his leadership on addressing the bail issue in our city and ending cash bail, also commended for reaching out at the state level. I know.

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State representative, Jordan Harris has been working on this issue and calling on our state counterparts and our governor to also take steps to address cash bail here in the city of Philadelphia and I just want to hone in on a point that he made and kind of illuminate that issue that this is an issue now an equal justice issue, but also an issue in reference to poverty, and when someone is not able to pay for bail and is in jail for a period of time and then they get released and those charges gets dismissed.

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They come back to a broken home. They come back to not having a job and it has a ripple effect in our entire city of Philadelphia. And when we talk about issues of having such a high amount of poverty, cash bails. One aspect that adds to the poverty in our city and I want to also remind members of this body that, during the good administration, the city helps support a bail fund, and so until we get rid of cash bail, we need to have supportive organizations that are providing bail fund.

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Some of them are testifying today in reference to helping people to get out of jail.

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So we had hearings last year regarding can the city support a bail fund, councilman Johnson, as well as counseling Jones, talked about the budget process and so we'll be having some very interesting and difficult conversations with a number of parties about this issue, but also with the first Judicial District is councilman Jones says so when we have our budget hearings and the first Judicial District comes to testify, we need to ask them the hard question about what happens when we charge someone bent down.

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Where does that money go to when we had two hearings regarding and bail fund, they couldn't give us a specific background or information or reason on how they articulate and define. That number is that number to pay for the cost of running I'm.

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Certain things we couldn't get that number, it seems arbitrary, so I know I'm sure, counseling, Jones and oz will be reaching out to our first judicial district to find out how do they come up with the fees and fines that we charge in reference to bail and then also we also need to have a conversation with the first mr.

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district regarding the oversight of our bail commissioners, because, although our new district attorney, our public defenders, can ask the court to not provide bail, the bail Commissioner can still set bail and I can recall, being both a former ABA here in Philadelphia and also being an assistant, Deputy Attorney General in Delaware at times where I did not believe a state, trooper or a police officer, and did it and did not want to move forward a case or did not want to have a certain bail amount.

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It's still up to that bail commissioner, to make that decision. So we need to make sure we have the hard questions with the first Judicial District before they get here. For budget hearings to find out why, when what amount they're sitting on our bail funds and where that money is going to and what's the oversight for our bail commissioners, that way, we can take the steps, as counseling Jones stated, to get rid of cash bail and also to support those organizations are doing bail funds in the interim Thank You council president Thank You counselor.