Commissioners were once again divided over advocates’ desire to create a working group on prison and criminal justice issues

Members of the Reimagine Justice Lancaster coalition renewed their request for a joint county-community “Safety and Justice Working Group” to Lancaster County commissioners Tuesday morning.

It is critical for the county to reevaluate its approach to incarceration and criminal justice, they said, before moving forward with construction of the nearly 1,000-bed correctional facility outlined in the schematic design released in August.

“This is our opportunity to take the time to get this right,” said Jennifer Kurtz of Power Interfaith, one of more than a half-dozen advocates who addressed commissioners at their weekly work session. (This included Julie Kennedy, director of advocacy and engagement at United Way of Lancaster County.)

The community and its government must look together at the “bigger picture” of criminal justice in Lancaster County, said the Rev. Jason Perkowski, also of Power Interfaith. The opportunity to comment at county meetings and correctional hearing sessions is welcome, but that is not the same as an ongoing group of stakeholders who can meet regularly and discuss and deliberate in depth, he said.

Coalition members have been pushing for changes to bail and other criminal justice policies and a corresponding downsizing of the new prison since the new project was first announced.

On Tuesday, they presented commissioners with a white paper (PDF) prepared by the Vera Institute of Justice in support of their case. Based on local data, it is alleged that Lancaster County over-incarcerates and underfunds social services.

“A new jail will be costly and will effectively commit the county to a high incarceration rate in the future,” it says.

Fundamentally, the community and county government want the same thing, said Michelle Batt, founder of the Lancaster Bail Fund: a safe community, reduced recidivism and prudent, responsible use of public money. Those goals would be better achieved through a smaller prison and investments in “preventative community-based services,” she said.

Batt’s colleague Jessica Lopez, Bail Fund lead attorney and community organizer, called for more support for affordable housing, youth activities and crisis intervention.

“We just hope you start investing in and funding our people,” she said.

It’s about the schematic design

The schematic design, awaiting commissioners’ decision, calls for a 994-bed, 433,018-square-foot facility. It offers a preliminary cost estimate of $890 to $940 per square foot, which would give a total cost of $385 million to $407 million.

At last month’s prison board meeting, commissioners Josh Parsons and Ray D’Agostino said they weren’t quite ready to commit to the proposed size and would rather see more options before moving forward.

The coalition had already requested the establishment of a working group in May. At that meeting, Commissioner Alice Yoder supported the idea, while Commissioners D’Agostino and Parsons were skeptical.

The same dynamic played out Tuesday.

Yoder said she supports a task force “100%” and would like to get involved in it. She said she would like to see whether the correctional facility would focus more on mental health and substance abuse treatment, and see if it would be more cost-effective if part of it were turned into a “quasi-mental health clinic” with commensurate rates Costs would be redesigned level of security requirements.

D’Agostino said that while there is always room for improvement, it is important to recognize that Lancaster County already has a wide range of social services, including health care, mental health, substance abuse treatment, child welfare and housing assistance, and diversion courts.

If Commissioner Yoder wants to participate in the working group, that’s fine, he said, but he is not in favor of the county government engaging in discussions about issues outside of its jurisdiction – in this case, criminal justice policy, which it oversees law enforcement and the court system .

There’s no reason Reimagine Justice can’t pursue its goals alone, he said, just as he and his colleagues did when he worked in the nonprofit housing sector.

“The most meaningful things that happen in the community are led by the community,” he said. “That’s why I encourage you to do that.”

Commissioner Parsons said he would review the group’s data. He reiterated that he is not convinced that the county needs a 1,000-bed facility, but cautioned that it needs to be built at a size that will continue to serve for 50 to 100 years into the future.

Yes, the majority of inmates are being held in custody, he acknowledged, but in many cases they have committed probation or parole violations and there must be consequences for that. Overall, Lancaster County is one of the safest in Pennsylvania, and commissioners want to keep it that way, he said.

President Judge David Ashworth leads the county’s court administration. He has always pointed out that a working group to review court practices is out of the question. The court system must adhere to state law and Supreme Court guidance, and its operational decisions are not subject to community review.

The Vera Institute Report

In its report, the Vera Institute notes that criminal justice accounts for a large portion of the local county budget, with $23 out of every $100 in property taxes going to the county jail alone. It also notes that the prison charges commission and other fees to its inmates, who are disproportionately poor and nonwhite.

It is said that the district’s social services have significant gaps. The vast majority of funding for these services comes from state and federal sources; Increasing local funding “could certainly reduce incarceration and even save the county money,” it says.

The district attorney’s office and diversion courts should be expanded, they say. Regarding the latter, it is noted that the diversion courts admitted only 55 defendants in 2022, “suggesting that they are far from being at capacity.”

Speakers provided additional statistics Tuesday. Black defendants in Lancaster County are charged cash bail more often and in higher amounts than white defendants, said Isabel Castillo, director of the Center for Race and Gender Equity at the YWCA Lancaster, citing data from the ACLU of Pennsylvania included in the Racial Equity Profile of the District included were published in 2023.

The three-year recidivism rate in the county jail’s MISA (mental health and substance abuse) group is 59%, and among graduates of the New Beginnings reentry program it is 65%, said Beth Reeves of Power Interfaith. She suggested that Lancaster County implement supportive housing programs to discourage people from cycling in and out of jail, citing programs in Denver and New York City as models.

Parsons said that doesn’t convince him because Denver and New York aren’t as safe as Lancaster County. He accused the group of parroting “national talking points” and Castillo of making accusations without evidence. Bail dates should be adjusted to reflect the seriousness of the charges, he said, suggesting that would explain the differences.

Lopez accused Parsons of “gaslighting” for refusing to acknowledge that Reimagine Justice had data to back up its claims.

“The Lancaster County Jail doesn’t make anyone safer,” she said. “Let’s be honest. Don’t attack us because we attack the problems.”

“It’s not gaslighting,” Parsons replied, adding that the county jail, along with the rest of the county’s public safety system, is one of the reasons Lancaster County is as safe as it is.

Once clients approve a schematic design with or without modifications, the design team can begin drafting and ultimately produce a series of construction documents.

The timeline on the correctional facility project website calls for a call for proposals in the second half of 2025 and groundbreaking toward the end of the year. The construction work is expected to take around two years.