Posted by
Team Raj on Monday, August 21, 2006 11:29:57 PM
Philadelphia Inquirer reports
Lynne Abraham’s position.
District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham yesterday announced that she would weigh in on a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of inmates alleging crowded conditions in city prisons.
Abraham said that one of the remedies proposed in the suit - releasing inmates to relieve overcrowding - would endanger public safety.
"The last time prisoners were released by a prison cap order, they unleashed a crime wave on the citizens of Philadelphia," Abraham said in a statement. Her office yesterday filed a motion to intervene: to become a third party to the suit in order to protect its interest - public safety.
In the 1980s, the city was sued in federal court by prisoners alleging overcrowded conditions. The city settled by accepting a cap on the prison population, and releasing scores of defendants charged with lesser offenses.
Abraham said that as a result, the number of fugitives nearly tripled, and thousands of them were rearrested for new crimes.