Click here to subscribe today or Login.
WILKES-BARRE — Overcrowding and inmate involvement in gangs and drug addiction made Luzerne County’s Water Street prison a pressure cooker long before the recent deaths of a correctional officer and inmate, and court officials are confident they have a tangible way to relieve some of the stress.
Their plan to get the county district attorney’s office actively involved in all criminal cases sooner at a proposed magisterial-level central court should significantly reduce the prison population by more quickly weeding out defendants who don’t require incarceration, court officials argue.
The premise: These prosecutors can negotiate plea agreements, determine if the initial evidence supports the charges that have been filed and weigh in on bail recommendations.
County Court of Common Pleas President Judge Richard Hughes and county Court of Common Pleas Judge Michael T. Vough, who oversees the county criminal court division, point to one statistic as evidence their plan should not be put off — the percentage of county inmates awaiting sentencing.
The national average percentage of inmates awaiting sentencing — as opposed to serving sentences — is 30 percent, Vough said.
In November, between 75 and 80 percent of inmates in the Luzerne County prison were awaiting adjudication.
“That’s the number I want to flip,” Vough said. “I’ve seen people sitting in jail six or seven months where their final sentence is probation. That’s inefficiency.”
More aggressive scheduling and other cooperative measures between all parties — courts, prosecutors, public defenders and prison officials — have reduced the percentage of county inmates awaiting trial to as low as 60 percent since November, but there’s still a wide gap to cross to catch up to the national average, Vough said.
The county prison is in the limelight due to the July 18 death of inmate Timothy Darnell Gilliam Jr., 27, and correctional officer Kristopher D. Moules, 25. A criminal investigation concluded the prison’s fifth-floor elevator door immediately gave way at the base when Gilliam pulled Moules backwards and hit the door, resulting in both men falling 59 feet and 1 inch down an elevator shaft to their deaths.
Central court would round up all magisterial-level criminal court proceedings at two locations in Wilkes-Barre and the Hazleton areas instead of at 16 district judge offices scattered throughout the county.
While the public defender’s office already provides representation at magisterial-level preliminary hearings if requested by defendants, assistant district attorneys typically only appear at these proceedings in higher-level cases, officials said.
Court officials plan to use an existing Hazleton-area magisterial office to house the southern county central court to prevent additional space rental costs, and they hope the administration will free up space in the courthouse basement for the Wilkes-Barre central court.
“We are still full steam ahead,” Hughes said. “Prison overcrowding certainly is an issue, and I think all branches of government where we can want to try to make things more efficient and try to come up with resolutions to these issues.”
Concerns raised
County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis said she has always supported measures to reduce the prison population but sees no way she can proceed with central court unless the county provides additional funding for more assistant district attorneys.
The administration has not committed additional funding, she said.
“If central court is run efficiently and we have the resources to actually be involved in it, it would be a wonderful tool. I don’t know if that’s possible with the financial state of the county,” Salavantis said.
Under the current structure, assistant district attorneys attend preliminary hearings involving the most serious crimes and possibly sensitive cases at the request of police, she said.
“In central court, every single case will be handled by an assistant district attorney initially,” Salavantis said. “With the existing caseloads we have, we’re just trying to stay afloat and keep the bad guys off the street to keep communities safe.”
Using the court’s rationale for central court, the additional up-front investment of resources could reduce the workload on the back end for the district attorney’s office, negating the need for more staff.
Salavantis said she’s not convinced earlier participation by her office will result in a significant reduction in court cases or prison population.
“Yes, an ADA would be involved in the beginning, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be giving away the shop,” she said. “From what I’m seeing, the cases are being handled properly now.”
County Chief Public Defender Steven Greenwald said the involvement of assistant district attorneys at preliminary hearings may have the opposite effect and increase the number of cases that advance to court.
The county’s original central court, which opened in 2006 and was later downsized and phased out in 2012, led to an increase in court cases, Greenwald said.
“Initially I was in favor of central court, but I’m not so sure I’m in favor of it now,” he said.
Greenwald also questioned if the assistant district attorneys assigned to central court will have a willingness and full authority to dispose of cases because they are inherently in prosecution mode or may determine additional discovery is needed.
“That’s the number one issue. If they’re going to send an ADA who is not willing to discuss disposition of cases, it’s not going to work,” he said.
Drug problem
Addiction is the primary driver of prison overcrowding that must be addressed, argued Salavantis and Greenwald.
“If we’re throwing money at something that’s not the root of the problem, we’re wasting money, and the root of the problem in my mind is heroin,” Greenwald said.
He conservatively estimated 80 percent of crime in the county is driven by heroin addiction.
Vough said he wholeheartedly agrees addiction must be addressed.
“If you throw in alcohol, that accounts for 90 percent of the crime. There’s no question the biggest issue in this county is drug and alcohol addiction,” Vough said. “I’m trying to fix what we have now quickly, in months or a year, not a decade.”
Vough said he believes the district attorney’s and public defender’s offices will work together to resolve many cases at central court.
“There may be an uptick in cases advancing to court initially, but if it starts working the way it should, we will see people adjudicated much quicker,” he said. “Now, many cases are sitting five or six months before they get to me.”
County council members must weigh in if the addition of central court impacts the budget, said council Chairwoman Linda McClosky Houck.
At $34.1 million, the prison system is the largest single department expense in the county’s $130.2 million general fund operating budget. The county spends around $110 on each inmate per day.
The prison was designed to hold 505 inmates and typically has been at or above capacity in recent years. County Manager C. David Pedri has called for revival of plans to build a new prison with a more efficient and safer layout.
Pedri said he was a “big proponent” of central court when he worked as a prosecutor in the district attorney’s office and will work with all parties involved to implement the change if court officials want to proceed.
“The specifics, including the exact location, are not set in stone,” Pedri said.