State House Sound Bites

AGs announce agreement to crack down on robocalls

2019-08-22T23:04:18Z

Attorneys General in all 50 states and Washington DC -- including Pennsylvania AG Josh Shapiro -- announced their agreement with phone companies on Thursday. (Photo by AP)

(Harrisburg) - Pennsylvania's attorney general is touting an agreement he and other attorneys general have made with a number of the country's biggest phone companies.

It's aimed at cracking down on unwanted robocalls.

Not all robocalls are illegal.

But many are--particularly ones from unknown numbers trying to sell people things without their consent.

And studies have shown they're on the rise.

As Congress works on a package of bills aimed at curtailing the calls, attorneys general in all 50 states -- including Pennsylvania -- and Washington DC have announced a victory on an initiative of their own.

They've agreed to a voluntary memorandum of understanding with 12 of the biggest phone companies in the country.

The companies have agreed to offer free call-blocking to customers and technology that can authenticate callers, plus monitor robocalls more actively.

They'll also help law enforcement identify and track robocallers.

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro said part of the reason he's pursuing the issue is because people in the commonwealth have told him how annoying robocalls are.

Plus, he said, the calls are "not simply an annoyance--they are illegal, and they are used to take advantage of our seniors and other vulnerable populations."

Almost 10 years in, Pa. commission struggles to agree on sentencing reforms

2019-08-21T23:06:22Z

Montgomery County Chief Public Defender Dean Beer testifies against the proposed risk assessment system, before Sentencing Commission Vice-Chair Todd Stephens and Executive Director Mark Bergstrom. (Katie Meyer/WITF)

(Harrisburg) - A state commission is holding hearings this week in Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh to get feedback on its latest effort to make Pennsylvania's criminal sentencing process more objective.

It's a task they've been working on, unsuccessfully, for nearly a decade.

In the latest round, commissioners are running into the same issues that have long plagued the process. Advocates for the accused, like public defenders and the American Civil Liberties Union, say the risk assessments proposed could be biased and racially discriminatory--and that in fact, there may be no way to successfully create a fair risk assessment tool at all.

The effort started in 2010, when the commonwealth's Commission on Sentencing was given a mandate by the legislature.

They had to come up with an empirical way to figure out the likelihood of a defendant committing another crime and ending up back in the justice system. The stated goal was to make sentencing fairer, and to reduce the population in state prisons.

Commissioners introduced their first risk-assessment algorithm in 2015, but went back to the drawing board when advocates weren't satisfied. Two years later, their next attempt had a similar outcome, followed by two unsuccessful proposals the commission floated last year.

The current plan is the fifth in the process.

It would build an automatic risk assessment--officially called the Proposed Sentence Risk Assessment Instrument--into the report a court receives on recommended sentences for a person convicted of a crime.

The report is based on gender, age, the defendant's current conviction, prior convictions, and whether the person was criminally adjudicated as a child.

The algorithm would weigh those factors on a scale, and come up with a risk classification: low, average, or high.

Under a previous proposal, that classification and the reasoning behind it would have been passed on to the judge and attorneys involved in the case. But Sentencing Commission Executive Director Mark Bergstrom said advocates told him they were concerned about that approach.

"The feedback we got the last time around was that it leads to labeling" of defendants and might inordinately influence a judge's sentencing decision, he said.

So in this iteration of the assessment, the defendant wouldn't get a label. The court would just get a note advising they seek more information before sentencing in the form of an RNR (risk needs responsivity) report.

Those reports would be carried out by county probation offices, which already use a range of different risk assessment tools of their own to determine the level of supervision people need once they're out of prison.

One of the more common tools is the Ohio Risk Assessment System. Along with factors like criminal history, it measures risk by looking at things like a defendants' education levels, jobs, finances, and problems in their neighborhoods.

The state chapter of the ACLU has taken particular issue with this portion of the plan.

The group noted different counties use different risk assessment tools, and said its attorneys fear that would make statewide implementation of the Sentencing Commission's plan "chaotic." It added, data points used in some counties' assessment tools, like the neighborhoods where defendants live or their friends' criminal records, are "directly correlated to race."

"Pennsylvania is one of the nation's worst offenders when it comes to racial disparities in the criminal justice system," ACLU Criminal Justice Policy Counsel Nyssa Taylor said in her testimony at the Sentencing Commission's Philadelphia hearing on Tuesday.

The incarceration rate for black people is roughly nine times the rate for white people in the commonwealth.

Taylor added eliminating racial disparities "should be the cornerstone of the Commission's work. If the panel accepts the current version of this tool, it would be a complete repudiation of the Commission's fundamental mission and nothing other than a full-throated embrace of a racist tool."

Dean Beer, who serves as Montgomery County's chief public defender, was the only person who testified at the Sentencing Commission's Wednesday meeting in Harrisburg.

He echoed the ACLU's concerns that counties' assessment tools may lead to people being designated "high risk" due to racial bias.

Beer said he's also concerned county probation offices, which he noted tend to be overworked as it is, will be given more duties under the commission's recommendation.

Bergstrom said the plan would add about 10 percent more work for county offices.

Bergstrom and Representative Todd Stephens, the Montgomery County Republican who serves as Vice-Chair of the Sentencing Commission, led discussion at the commission's brief Harrisburg hearing and both defended the updates to the risk assessment system.

"In my mind, it is not only unconscionable, it's immoral and I think it's inhumane to just simply take an offender, look at the crime they committed, look at their prior record score, and say 'Okay, you're getting six to 12 years in state prison,' without looking at all at what's driving their criminogenic behavior," Stephens said.

The state, he said, doesn't have the tools to do an in-depth, personal assessment on every person who is being sentenced, like the ACLU and other advocates would prefer. He said he thinks the next best option is identifying people who would benefit from either a more relaxed sentence or extra supervision and making sure their needs are understood.

"I do think that the mandate is not only possible, but I actually think it's necessary," Stephens said. "I think it's a disservice to everyone involved with the criminal justice system--including the defendant--for us not to do a risk assessment."

Bergstrom, in the past, has been less confident about the likelihood of the mandate's success. After one of last year's rounds of hearings on different proposals, WESA reported he acknowledged an impasse might occur.

Beer said his ideal outcome wouldn't involve a risk assessment tool being implemented at all. He wants the legislature to repeal its mandate that one be created.

Asked if it's possible to reach a compromise, he was ambivalent.

"I'm not sure if it can be," he said.

Stephens, who has served on the commission for nearly the entire history of the mandate, said whatever happens next, he's hoping it happens soon.

"At some point you keep relitigating the same issues," he said. "I do feel that we need to put this to bed and move on to other issues."

A previous version of this story incorrectly referred to Representative Stephens as the chair of the Sentencing Commission. He is the vice-chair.

How to get rid of property taxes? Lawmaker looks to retirement income.

2019-08-20T22:06:32Z

Representative Frank Ryan explains his still-unintroduced plan to reporters. (Katie Meyer/WITF)

(Harrisburg) -- One state House lawmaker is trying to pitch a new solution to a very old Pennsylvania problem: the reliance on school property taxes.

Lebanon County Republican Representative Frank Ryan acknowledged Tuesday, his still-unintroduced property tax elimination plan would be a big, difficult pill for the commonwealth to swallow. That's mainly because the plan contains nearly five-percent tax on all retirement income except Social Security.

"Knowing how politically sensitive this is, I can't think of anybody other than a 68-year-old sophomore representative who could be willing to bring this up and talk about it," Ryan said.

He acknowledged, high earning senior citizens like himself would definitely pay more under the plan. And he added, some struggling school districts might have to either cut spending or consolidate.

"This is not going to be an easy sell," he said. "It's controversial. It's never been done before."

Along with the retiree tax, Ryan's plan would assess a 1.85 percent local personal income tax and a two percent local sales levy, which would extend to food and clothes.

Spokespeople for House and Senate leaders said they're waiting for recommendations from a task force on the issue before taking a stance on any bills.

Berks County GOP Senator David Argall, the head of the Senate Majority Policy Committee and one of the legislature's key voices on property tax elimination, has said Ryan's retiree tax is politically unfeasible--telling the Reading Eagle it is "very, very unpopular with the people that I represent."

However, he said he is considering some of Ryan's other proposals.

Ryan said he has been busy shopping his proposal around to his own constituents--particularly retirees, without whose support he said the bill will crash and burn.

That support currently stands at about 50 percent, he estimated. Retirees who live solely on Social Security tend to back it, and those with pensions or equivalents do not.

"Never would I have designed a system from scratch that looks like the bill I'm proposing," he said. "But I didn't design the system that I have to fix."

In PA and beyond, polling shows key suburban voters want gun reform

2019-08-19T22:50:16Z

In Pennsylvania, the issue of whether to regulate guns more closely is typically seen as partisan. (Photo by AP)

(Harrisburg) -- A Republican polling firm says its latest survey found compelling evidence that a key bloc of swing voters want stricter gun control.

The pollsters, from the group Public Opinion Strategy, surveyed 500 suburban women in five districts, including Pennsylvania's first congressional.

They found that out of seven options, the women said their highest-priority issue is guns. That option got first choice ranking from 30 percent of respondents. The next, healthcare, garnered 24 percent. National security, at the bottom, had eight percent.

The suburban women overwhelmingly--72 to four percent--said they think gun laws should be stricter, and that they'd be much more likely to vote for a GOP candidate who supports gun control measures like universal background checks and waiting periods for firearms purchases.

Suburban districts are often home to the moderate voters who help decide elections. Muhlenberg College professor Chris Borick, who runs his own poll, said women are particularly key for a couple reasons.

"One is, there's a high turnout rate among the group," he said. "And two, over the last few decades they have shown a willingness to switch party allegiance."

The pollsters who conducted the survey didn't respond to a request for comment, but one, Robert Blizzard, said on Twitter that it is "clear" suburban women want politicians to lobby for stricter gun control.

The data is pretty damn clear in the suburbs... Story below... A Republican poll shows overwhelming support for stricter gun control among suburban women https://t.co/EnYxjmAeia
-- Robert Blizzard (@robertblizzard) August 19, 2019

Outside of Pennsylvania, the women surveyed were from suburbs in Colorado, Kansas, North Carolina, and Virginia.

Borick noted, in the commonwealth and elsewhere, Public Opinion Strategy's findings aren't unusual.

"Recent polling has really, I think, driven home the fact that this issue has risen in prominence, and is poised to play more of a role in this election than in recent elections," he said.

Gun control is a relatively partisan issue in Pennsylvania politics, with most statewide Democrats in support of increased restrictions and many Republicans opposed.

In recent years, however, GOP support for targeted control measures--like a recently-passed bill that aims to make it harder for domestic abusers to possess guns--has increased. Several Republicans are trying to rally support for a bill that would allow expedited gun seizures if a person is provably dangerous to themselves or others.

President Donald Trump has expressed support for similar legislation on the federal level.

Industry trade groups say Pa. liquor pricing violates international law

2019-08-10T00:55:33Z

The PLCB launched its flexible pricing after the legislature approved it in 2016. (Katie Meyer/WITF)

Editor's note: This story and headline have been updated to clarify that industry trade groups representing producers signed the letter.

(Harrisburg) -- Pennsylvania's state-run wine and liquor industry may have run afoul of international trade law.

Industry trade groups representing producers in several countries have signed on to a letter complaining the way the commonwealth prices alcohol is too opaque, and amounts to "stealth taxes."

Pennsylvania changed the pricing structure for its state liquor industry in 2016, with authorization from the legislature.

Previously, it had levied a flat, 30 percent markup on all the products it sold. But the new system gave the state Liquor Control Board power to negotiate directly with wholesalers, and then set prices based on those agreements.

The change was pitched as a way to save consumers money, but also pump more money into revenue-starved state coffers.

But groups representing producers from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, the United Kingdom and the European Union say they're concerned it has made the markups unfair.

Plus, they say the system's too opaque.

The PLCB maintains it has been transparent and open about its pricing, and says it's having "collaborative" discussions about markups with suppliers.

After complaints, senators return to drawing board on part of school safety law

2019-08-09T01:16:03Z

A bill that aimed to give schools more security options ended up taking away arrest powers from certain officers. Now, they're pushing back. (Photo by AP)

(Harrisburg) -- A law to expand schools' security options in Pennsylvania now has some school law enforcement officers miffed.

The measure came with an unintended consequence -- taking away their arrest powers.

The school safety bill, SB 621, was signed this summer as part of the state budget. It is a response to Act 44, another education bill that was signed last year.

The state had interpreted Act 44 to mean school security guards cannot be armed, so lawmakers drafted SB 621 in an effort to clarify that they are, in fact, allowed to carry weapons if the school district requests it. Plus, it lets sheriffs and deputies serve as school resource officers.

But the measure also contains a less-discussed provision.

Schools have different categories of security officers. One of those categories includes both law enforcement directly employed by schools, and officers who work through third-party vendors.

A staffer for GOP Senator Mike Regan, who sponsored the bill, said some lawmakers were concerned about giving arrest powers to officers who work through vendors, since they don't report to a public entity.

"The main concern is accountability," Legislative Director Erin Marsicano said. She noted, that concern was initially raised by the Fraternal Order of Police.

In response, during the late stages of drafting Regan's bill, lawmakers decided to take away arrest power from an entire category of school law enforcement -- both third-party vendor officers and officers employed by a school directly.

Officers in that category have always had to petition a court of common pleas judge to be granted law enforcement powers.

When the new law goes into effect at the end of August, they'll still be able to petition for the ability to carry firearms and to detain people and issue summary citations. But they can't be granted arrest powers.

Complaints have begun trickling into Regan's office from districts across the state.

The Sunbury Daily Item reported that officers in Snyder County, for instance, felt blindsided by the change.

Now, Regan and other senators are working on an update to the law to return arrest power in certain cases.

The goal, Marsicano said, is still the same as it was when they first passed the bill -- make sure make sure schools can return to the security options they had before Act 44 took effect.

"We recognize the need to do this for the School Police Officers while recognizing the concern raised about third-party vendor employees having police powers," she added.

It is unclear what the legislative solution will look like. Marsicano said Regan plans to get the ball rolling when the Senate returns to session in the fall.

Highmark must pay fine for filing errors, state says

2019-08-08T03:42:44Z

The Highmark and UPMC buildings stand among the downtown Pittsburgh skyline on Monday, June 24, 2019. (Photo by AP)

(Harrisburg) -- Pittsburgh-based insurer Highmark has to pay the commonwealth $145,000 after a mistake that led to a number of businesses being overcharged for workers' compensation.

The issue dates back to a filing error.

In 2016 a Highmark subsidiary, Highmark Casualty, sold its workers compensation insurance business to West Virginia-based BrickStreet Mutual Insurance.

The Insurance Department says incorrect information was then passed along to the Pennsylvania Compensation Rating Bureau, which ultimately had some businesses pay out higher workers' comp rates than they should have.

The department had to issue revised insurance rates in the middle of last year to fix it. And so far, 90 workers compensation insurers have reimbursed businesses for the overpayment.

BrickStreet was fined alongside Highmark. It'll have to pay $80,000 for the error.

The insurance department is also requiring the rating bureau to boost its internal controls to guard against similar errors in the future.

Fellow Dems challenging Leach promise similar policies, but a change in culture

2019-08-07T19:24:10Z

The state Democratic party, Delaware and Montgomery County Democratic Committees, Senate Democratic Caucus, and governor have all urged state Senator Daylin Leach to resign. (Photo by AP)

(Harrisburg) -- The pressure against an embattled state senator is ramping up ahead of next year's elections--and most of it is coming from within his own party.

This year, Democrat Daylin Leach lost support from his own caucus, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, and the Democratic committees in the counties he represents after being accused of inappropriate conduct with female staffers.

With eight months to go before his primary election, he already has three challengers.

The latest Democrat to throw a hat in the ring against Leach is Linda Fields.

The activist and union organizer is a known entity in southeast Pennsylvania. Last year, she gave Republican Senator Bob Mensch a close run in the 24^th district, which borders Leach's 17^th district to the north.

Activist Sara Atkins was the first to enter the primary race in May, pledging to do a better job than Leach, whom she called distracted.

Norristown Area School Board President Shae Ashe has also announced as a candidate.

Linda Fields previously challenged GOP state Senator Bob Mensch in a different district. (Photo provided by Linda Fields' campaign)

Fields moved to the 17^th state Senate district after her loss to Mensch. It has a decidedly more liberal constituency than her old 24^th district, but she said she sees herself as very similar to Leach politically.

The change she's promising, she said is more cultural.

"Respect is a big deal for me," she said. "As a mother and a grandmother and a woman, [Leach] cannot be a woman. He cannot know what we feel and how we think."

Joe Foster, who chairs the Democratic Committee in Montgomery County, said it is too soon for him to officially back a candidate in the 17^th district.

"We'll see what happens over the next couple of months, he said--noting he suspects "there may be some others who are going to also declare."

Foster and Montgomery County's other Democratic officials called for Leach's resignation in March, a step their counterparts in Delaware County had already taken a month prior.

Foster said Leach should make no mistake about the committee's stance.

"The intent was that we need to rethink how we are going to approach the 17^th state senatorial district," he said. "Our call was for Daylin to resign, and I know that all of us continue to stand by that call."

In the wake of the allegations against Leach, Senate Democrats ordered an investigation by a private law firm.

It found the longtime senator likely didn't break caucus rules, but may have created a hostile work environment.

Leach said the report exonerated him; caucus leader Jay Costa disagreed, calling the Democrat's behavior "irresponsible" and "unacceptable" and urging his resignation.

Leach has steadfastly refused to step down.

His campaign said at this time, it doesn't have any comment on the Democrats lining up to oppose him.

Ralliers gather in Harrisburg, again, to urge action on guns

2019-08-06T19:20:51Z

The activists who gathered in Harrisburg brought cards emblazoned with death tolls from the major mass shootings that have happened in the US in recent years. (Katie Meyer/WITF)

(Harrisburg) -- A group of activists took to the streets of Harrisburg Tuesday to drum up support--in both the state and federal government--for stricter gun laws.

The demonstration was one of many springing up statewide in the wake of the mass shootings in Texas and Ohio that killed more than 30 people.

The group gathers on this particular street corner, which borders both the state Capitol and US Senator Pat Toomey's Harrisburg office, every week.

They coalesced under the name Tuesdays with Toomey more than two years ago in a bid to get the Republican senator to break with the president.

The gun control group Moms Demand Action joined the event. Organizer Kadida Kenner said she hopes lawmakers pay attention.

"We thought when it was the children who were killed in Connecticut, that was it," she said. "We thought when it was the Parkland students speaking up and speaking out, we thought that was going to be it. Who knows?"

Ralliers collected signatures from passersby, for a petition urging state and federal policy makers to ban military-style rifles, limit magazine capacities, and enact laws to flag potential shooters, among other things.

One of the signatures came from Dan Davenport Jr., a 38-year-old landscaper and Harrisburg native who said he's not just concerned about mass shootings.

"A lot of the massacres are--I mean stereotypically--white males," he acknowledged. "But you also need to look at inner-city violence."

It's a brand of violence with which Davenport is familiar. He said he was shot at 16, and more recently had a friend shot to death while trying to defend his wife and daughter.

Harrisburg resident Dan Davenport Jr., who was passing by the rally, gives an impromptu speech in support of stricter gun restrictions. (Katie Meyer/WITF)

In Harrisburg alone, one person was killed and five were injured in six separate shootings this weekend.

Apart from a law that makes it easier to take guns from domestic abusers, there has been no movement to tighten restrictions in Pennsylvania in recent years.

Some lawmakers have hopes for a similarly targeted bill, which would allow expedited gun seizures if a person is provably dangerous.

That concept, known colloquially as "red-flag" legislation, has gained some traction nationally as well. Toomey himself is a notable supporter.

But Kenner said alone, red flag laws are insufficient.

"You ask for what you need," she said. "We need some real common-sense gun laws that protect us from AR-15s and AR-47s. No one needs to own those in the state of Pennsylvania or across the country.

Democrats in the Pennsylvania legislature have long called for broad gun reforms.

After the protest Tuesday, at least one top Republican indicated some of those reforms might get serious consideration.

Lisa Baker, who chairs the GOP-controlled Senate's powerful Judiciary Committee, said she intends to hold hearings on the issue "as a prelude to action."

The rising toll from mass shootings, she said in a statement, means lawmakers should examine not only
"what can be constitutionally accomplished in respect to weapons and ammunition, but the dire need to upgrade mental health services and to confront the climate of hate and bias that encourages supremacists and others to act in violent and destructive ways."

She added, she doesn't intend to take symbolic steps, and wants action only on plans that are workable, enforceable, and defendable in court.

Pence swings by Franklin County crane facility to push NAFTA replacement

2019-08-01T17:01:10Z

Vice President Mike Pence got a tour of a crane manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania Thursday morning. (Katie Meyer/WITF)

(Harrisburg) -- A crane company had a chance to show off its southcentral Pennsylvania operation to a high-profile guest Thursday morning: Vice President Mike Pence.

Pence made the trip to the important swing state to pitch the administration's proposed replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement.

As a singer entertained employees outside the Manitowoc Crane Group's manufacturing facility in Franklin County, just north of the Maryland border, Pence took a tour.

He inspected crane parts, heard about the manufacturing process, and climbed inside the cab of one machine.

The vice president sits in a crane cab. (Katie Meyer/WITF)

He'd chosen the Manitowoc plant for a specific reason.

It was, he said, "great to be here at the country's only American-owned and American-produced crane company."

Pence touched on environmental issues--saying the "war on coal is over" under President Donald Trump, and calling the Democrats who support increasing green energy subsidies "radical."

But his main point was on trade.

Pence is promoting the administration's U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, which would replace NAFTA.

It's designed to push manufacturing back to the U.S. through provisions like mandatory higher wages for autoworkers. And the vice president is using Manitowoc as a symbol of what the administration's hoping will happen under the proposed deal.

"This company has invested nearly $50 million in the last three years alone, and hired more than 350 new workers right at this site," he said.

The deal has made some progress in the Democratic-controlled Congress--though leaders have said they don't think it has strong enough enforcement mechanisms.

They've also pushed for stronger environmental protections, and say they're concerned it might allow pharmaceutical companies to drastically hike prices for certain treatments.

This is Pence's second trip to Pennsylvania to push the USMCA. In June, he visited a robotics maker in York County to make a similar point about the value of domestic manufacturing.

The commonwealth is considered a key state for Trump in the upcoming 2020 election.

He unexpectedly won it in 2016, but his margin was narrow--just 0.72 percent of a point.

Cash assistance program for the poor in Pa. ends today

2019-08-01T09:33:11Z

Shown is the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., Monday, May 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

(Harrisburg) -- Despite a legal aid group asking the commonwealth court to grant an injunction, a small cash assistance for the poor has ended, effective Thursday.

The GOP-controlled legislature spearheaded a contentious repeal of the program in this year's state budget.

It had served about 11,000 people statewide and gave them roughly $200 per month. The governor's office has estimated it would have cost about $24.5 million out of the $34 billion budget.

When House and Senate Republicans were moving the repeal, they added a provision that allocated money for Philadelphia hospitals.

Democratic Governor Tom Wolf said that provision tied his hands, forcing him to sign the legislation.

"I support General Assistance. I support cash assistance," he told reporters. "I tried to keep it. The General Assembly did not want to keep it."

Now, Wolf's administration is in the awkward position of having to defend the repeal in court.

The state Department of Human Services is the defendant in the lawsuit from Community Legal Services of Philadelphia. The department has hired an outside firm, Philadelphia-based Blank Rome LLP, to argue the case.

A spokesman for the governor said it is a standard measure, and that "complex constitutional litigation" sometimes requires the "additional resources of outside firms."

Lead Community Legal Services attorney Maria Pulzetti said she and her colleagues were hoping the court would act before the program ended.

"Our main concern is for our clients," she said. "Our clients will not be having any subsistence income."

So far, she said, they have heard nothing from the court.

That doesn't necessarily preclude an injunction. But Pulzetti noted, it does mean General Assistance recipients may struggle with the "stability of their housing and their conditions of living and their health and their food security."

General Assistance was repealed once before, in 2012. After six years of litigation a court overturned the repeal last year, saying lawmakers had passed it too quickly, violating Article III, Section 1 of the constitution, which says legislation must be considered on three different days without significant changes.

But in their decision, the justices also footnoted a parallel.

"Our court," they wrote, "utilizes the same germaneness test to determine whether the manner of passage of a bill violates Article III, Section 1 and Article III, Section 3 [the single subject rule]."

The plaintiffs' argument against the repeal this time relates to the single subject rule, which they say lawmakers violated by passing the repeal alongside Philadelphia hospital money.

Wolf issues executive order aimed at improving Pa's 'outdated' human services

2019-08-01T09:33:09Z

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf speaks during a news conference at the John H. Taggart School library, Thursday, March 21, 2019, in Philadelphia. Wolf discussed his infrastructure package, Restore Pennsylvania, to help remediate contaminants from Pennsylvania schools. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

(Harrisburg) -- After a series of incidents in which people have been harmed while in state or county human services care, Governor Tom Wolf says the system isn't working.

He issued an executive order Wednesday that--among other things--aims to figure out what's going wrong.

Explaining his decision, Wolf pointed to a reform school for boys that was shut down after a journalist uncovered ongoing abuse.

There have been reports of elderly people being harmed in nursing homes. And in 2016, a 14-year-old girl was brutally murdered by her foster parents, after caseworkers overlooked signs of abuse.

"Today we're being honest that the decades-in-the-making, outdated, rigid, convoluted system is not working for too many Pennsylvanians," Wolf said.

The order will create a new Office of Advocacy and Reform within the governor's office, and a council on reform.

They'll be tasked with studying best practices for vulnerable people, coordinating with counties, and recommending changes.

"For too long," Wolf said, "we have viewed the role of the state as one of just administration and oversight, and our systems have been built to prioritize the institution over the human being."

Many of Pennsylvania's human services functions are carried out by counties. Wolf noted, he can't force them to change anything. But the Association of County Commissioners has indicated it's on board.

Wolf will appoint an executive director for his new advocacy office, plus a child advocate.

He'll also appoint members to the reform council, which will include department heads as well.

Toomey, Casey unite over Philly hospital

2019-07-31T00:20:29Z

Senators Casey and Toomey in Philadelphia in 2011. (Photo by AP)

(Philadelphia) -- Pennsylvania's US Senators are making a bipartisan push to measure the impact of a Philadelphia hospital's imminent closure.

Last year, the American Academic Health System bought Hahnemann University Hospital.

Now, the owner has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and the hospital is slated to shut down in September.

Hahnemann is a safety-net hospital, which means it aims to serve patients regardless of their insurance status. It treats about 55,000 people a year and employs around 2,500--including 550 medical residents.

Republican Senator Pat Toomey and his Democratic counterpart Bob Casey want the federal Health and Human Services Department to lessen the impact on all involved.

They're particularly concerned about the residents.

The Affordable Care Act stipulates if a hospital closes, Graduate Medical Education slots must be redistributed. Casey and Toomey want the government to make sure the slots stay in Pennsylvania.

Along with the senators, four congressional members signed on asking for federal help.

This isn't the first time Hahnemann has become a political issue.

Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders made a trip to the facility recently to argue for an end to private healthcare.

Corrections cautions against 'knee jerk' reaction after parolee murders

2019-07-30T20:40:17Z

Five onetime state inmates have killed six people since May. It's unclear if there is a pattern. (Photo by AP)

(Harrisburg) - The six murders happened in relatively quick succession.

In the first, on May 23, a man allegedly strangled his girlfriend's mother, then set her Hershey house on fire to cover it up.

On June 29, police say another man beat his girlfriend's two-year-old son to death outside Baltimore. A similar crime happened a little over a week later in New Castle, about fifty miles outside Pittsburgh--this time the victim was eight years old, and his mother's boyfriend allegedly stabbed him.

Police report that a man shot and killed an off-duty Pittsburgh police officer on July 14. And four days after that, another man is said to have stabbed his sister and niece in Lancaster.

In all those incidents, the alleged perpetrators were onetime Pennsylvania state inmates out on parole. And in a commonwealth that has been working systematically to get people out of prison, that prompted concern.

The state Department of Corrections is about halfway through an internal audit of the incidents, and will sit for a public hearing before the state House and Senate Judiciary Committees when it is finished.

"These are all of a pretty shocking and egregious nature," said DOC Secretary John Wetzel. "I think it makes sense for us to look critically at it and see if there are any trends or any policies that are contributing."

Wetzel likened the review to the National Transportation Safety Board's process after a plane crash. DOC officials, he said, attempt to re-create incidents to try to understand each decision made.

In her letter to the DOC regarding the incidents, GOP Senate Judiciary Chair Lisa Baker thanked corrections officials for their work on the internal review and said it would yield "crucial" information.

But not everyone is as satisfied.

Larry Blackwell, who heads the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association, said he wants an outside entity to handle it.

"They can't do their own investigation and report," he said. "They do that now."

Blackwell said he is particularly convinced there was an oversight in the case of Keith Burley, the man who allegedly stabbed his girlfriend's eight-year-old son. Burley had a record of violence in prison, Blackwell said--including an incident in which he was convicted of stabbing another inmate in the neck with a pencil years before he was paroled.

Blackwell, a longtime corrections officer who was recently elected to lead the union, added that his skepticism is nothing new.

"The specific problem I have been pointing to is the mechanical operation of the parole board," he said. "All you need to do is accomplish goals, like getting a GED, staying misconduct-free, maybe holding a job for six months in the prison...and once you get all the boxes check marked, you're eligible for parole."

He said he believes corrections officers should have more input in the parole process.

He also theorized that by restricting the leeway corrections officers have to sentence inmates to restricted housing--colloquially known as solitary confinement--the DOC is causing worse outcomes post-parole.

"When you take discipline out of anything, you lose control," he said.

Wetzel, who served under GOP Governor Tom Corbett and now under Democratic Governor Tom Wolf, said he would be happy to provide records to anyone interested in conducting an independent review.

But he said data the DOC has collected doesn't seem to support Blackwell's conclusions.

In 2012, Pennsylvania took one of its first significant steps toward reducing its imprisoned population--which had previously been on an upswing--with the passage of the first phase of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, or JRI 1.

Among other things, it aimed to put parole violators into community correction centers rather than state prison, introduced a risk-assessment tool for judges to use during sentencing and got rid of pre-release, in which inmates could be assessed for release once their minimum sentences were up.

Another parole-related change was made in 2012, when the DOC and the Board of Probation and Parole combined some of their previously-overlapping responsibilities, like community supervision of parolees.

Wetzel said while he takes the recent spate of murders by people on parole seriously, he doesn't want to make any unwarranted changes.

Crime Rates of Parolees - 2... by Katie Meyer on Scribd

Records kept by the DOC show that since 2007, the first year for which the department provided data, the statewide parolee population has ballooned from 29,568 to 41,459, as of June 30.

In that time, total arrest rates for all alleged crimes by parolees have remained relatively stable. The low, in 2010, was 147.4 arrests per 1,000 parolees; the high, 168.2, came in 2015.

Last year, 156.2 per 1,000 parolees were arrested. The average for the 12 full years provided was 158.9.

Rates for charges of murder and attempted murder are much lower, and similarly consistent

The high, in 2007, was 3.1 murders or attempts per 1,000 parolees. In 2010, 2011, 2016 and 2018, that number was at a low of 2.2 out of 1,000.

None of that, Wetzel said, appears to point to any recent parole-related policies increasing crime by parolees.

"Listen, I think in every way we need to use data, measure it, infer what we can from the actual data, learn what we can from individual cases, and not knee-jerk," Wetzel said. "Bad criminal justice policy has happened for decades because of knee-jerk."

He added that the commonwealth's parole board is "making decisions based on more data and assessments than they ever have."

A date has not been set for the House and Senate Judiciary committees to hear the DOC's findings.

Wolf admin says SNAP restriction could impact 200,000 Pennsylvanians

2019-07-26T22:23:33Z

The governor, a Democrat, said he strongly opposes the Trump administration's proposal. (Photo by AP)

(Harrisburg) -- Democratic state lawmakers are criticizing the Trump Administration over its proposed plan to restrict Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for certain people.

They say the change amounts to a punishment for the poor.

Right now, people who receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families--or TANF--are also considered eligible for SNAP.

But the US Department of Agriculture is proposing limiting that eligibility to people who get at least $50 in TANF benefits per month.

It would also limit the kind of non-cash benefits that make a person SNAP-eligible. Only subsidized employment, work supports, or childcare would be considered acceptable.

The USDA is pitching the change as a loophole closure that will allow more money to go to needier people.

In a press release, the department said the flexibility in SNAP eligibility rules were "egregious," citing a case in which a Minnesota millionaire was able to successfully enroll.

Vince Hughes, a Democratic state senator from Philadelphia, said he vehemently disagrees with the USDA's position, calling it, "Absolutely unnecessary, absolutely unconscionable, [and] absolutely immoral."

Hughes sent a letter to the USDA saying as much. He said other Democrats will likely follow suit.

"These are fat-cat Republicans who just gave away the store with a huge tax break for their friends with their foot on the necks of poor people," he said.

A spokeswoman for Democratic Governor Tom Wolf said it is difficult to definitively say how many Pennsylvanians would be impacted by the proposed SNAP restriction.

The governor's office and state Department of Human Services said that Friday based on an initial analysis, about 200,000 people in over 120,000 households could potentially lose the benefit.

More than 1.7 million people use SNAP in Pennsylvania, according to the administration

In a statement, Wolf echoed Hughes in calling the benefit restriction a "punishment for working families across America."

"I oppose this ludicrous change that will hurt tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians, creating an undue burden and more food insecurity for families," he said.

Wolf's spokeswoman said the elderly and disabled and working families would be disproportionally affected by the proposed restriction.

She added, the departments of Human Services and Education plan to submit public comment opposing the rule change.