Our latest walkthrough of the Philadelphia jails suggests that many of the problems that have endangered incarcerated people there since the pandemic persist: lack of out-of-cell time, gaps in supervision, and delays receiving medical care being among the most concerning.
At the same time, the city is making significant progress addressing the staffing shortage and unnecessarily high levels of incarceration at the root of the ongoing crisis. In the past year, the jail population has dropped by about 1,000, and the Department of Prisons has made major strides in recruiting and retaining corrections officers, reducing the staff vacancy rate from 47% to 34%.
Out-of-cell time still lacking
Prison Society staff and volunteers completed the walkthrough of Riverside Correctional Facility (RCF) on December 17, 2024, touring three housing units–one general population, one solitary confinement, and one protective custody unit–and interviewing 47 incarcerated men.
Nearly half of the men we interviewed in the general population unit reported not being let out of their cells every day in the previous week. More than half of them said that when they are let out, it is for less than 3 hours a day.
This finding is consistent with the latest report by a court-appointed independent monitor, which found that about a third of people incarcerated at RCF averaged less than 3 hours a day outside their cells. Under normal operations, people in custody would spend 8 to 10 hours out of their cells.
In response to the Prison Society’s finding, Philadelphia Department of Prisons commissioner Michael Resnick asserted that incarcerated people at RCF in general population units are provided more than 5 hours daily out-of-cell time. “However, if an incident occurs, or other operational needs arise, units may be temporarily secured, which could impact out-of-cell time,” he added.
Gaps in supervision on nights and weekends
The majority of the people we asked about staff presence reported that corrections officers are not available at night. Many also said that staff are not available on weekends, and that no one responds to the in-cell buzzers incarcerated people use to alert staff of an emergency.
Commissioner Resnick challenged this finding, saying that “While staffing on weekends can be a challenge, we ensure that all housing units in RCF are staffed overnight and on weekends.”
The court-appointed monitor’s report, however, found that 39% of posts at RCF were left vacant on average during the first 6 months of last year.
Resnick also said that emergency call buttons “have been added to the preventative maintenance schedule and are tested to ensure they remain fully operational at all times.”
Waiting for medical care
More than three-quarters of incarcerated people we spoke with at RCF who had requested medical care said it took more than a week to get a response.
Resnick contended that more details about the nature of these requests was needed to determine whether they received a timely response. “Was it something requiring immediate medical attention or a clinical issue that needed to be scheduled farther out in time?” he said.
But our interview question asked whether there was any response to the medical request, not whether they had received the care they needed. Typically, when people in custody at the Philadelphia jails have a non-emergency medical concern, they fill out a form detailing the issue. Next, medical staff respond to their cell for an assessment. Our finding, therefore, suggests it often takes more than a week to have the concern evaluated.
The complete findings from the Prison Society’s walkthrough of RCF and Commissioner Resnick’s response are available HERE.