Bridging the Red-Blue and Urban-Rural Divides

Over the past 3 months, I’ve been working with an impressive group of people from Adams County and from Philadelphia on an effort to understand our criminal justice system and agree on proposals to reduce mass incarceration. Mid-way through this project, I’ve learned that people of different political persuasions can work together and reach agreement on a controversial issue.

Through six days of meetings in Gettysburg and Philadelphia, the 28 participants heard from prison reform researchers and advocates, elected officials, and representatives of both the DA and public defenders. We learned about the obstacles faced by newly released prisoners and how a post-release re-entry coalition can provide assistance with jobs, housing, transportation, and treatment. We also learned that pre-trial detention as a result of cash bail requirements creates an undue burden on the poor and does not keep us safer.

The organizers, Joe Bubman and Chad Collie of Urban Rural Action and Josh Alvarez of the Prison Society, created the project with a collaborative management team that promoted a collaborative atmosphere amongst people with different backgrounds and holding different political views. I met some people more or less my age and people nearly half a century younger than me; people who have been working on prison reform for a decade or more and people (like me) who are still learning the basic vocabulary; people who couldn’t imagine living anywhere but a big city and people who love life in a rural area; people who would be comfortable at a Democratic party fundraiser and members of the county Republican committee.

We practiced how to listen and discuss rather than argue. And we avoided extraneous issues, focusing just on the topic. We’re not going to solve immigration but then that’s not our challenge. We learned that if people listen instead of thinking how they’re going to frame their rebuttal, they can find agreement. We also learned that we don’t have to have the same reasons for our agreement. One person might agree that excessive bail is wrong because it destroys lives and families while another might agree because if we’re locking people up who don’t need to be locked up, it’s a waste of the taxpayer’s money.

We quickly recognized the gulf between rural and urban incarceration practices – and they didn’t reflect well on Adams County. We regularly surprised our “big city” friends with what they considered outdated practices. The number of people incarcerated in Philadelphia is going down while ours continues to increase, with the result that Adams County’s incarceration rate per thousand is higher than Philadelphia’s. In the end we came to understand the differences and this understanding pointed the way for our follow-up work.

The Adams County group agreed we need to address two issues: bail, fines, and other financial aspects of incarceration; and the feasibility of starting a coming home re-entry coalition to ease the transition back into society. Harriet Marritz and Chad Collie are leading task forces working on these two issues. Philadelphia provides a guide for us. We learned that when they significantly reduced bail requirements, released prisoners continued to show up for their hearings and there was no increase in new offenses committed by people who had been released. We also learned how a post-release re-entry coalition can ease the transition back into society and avoid reincarceration.

Now that we’ve seen that people can reach agreement across wide political divides, I’m now optimistic that it may also be possible to find agreement on proposals relating to our ongoing “Poverty in Adams County” study.

I recently moderated an outstanding discussion on poverty. The panelists were Harriet Marritz of the Prison Society; Yeimi Gagliardi of Wellspan; Steve Niebler of the Housing Authority; Lili Peña of SCCAP; and homeless advocate Jenine Weaver. Collectively, the panelists discussed the local jobs and housing market, child care, health, homelessness, incarceration, minority communities, needs of people living in poverty, and supports that can help interrupt the cycle of poverty.

We learned that 1/3 of the residents of Adams County cannot afford the basic necessities; that the rental housing market is tight and expensive; and that homelessness and hunger are widespread. We’ve learned that most of the poor already are working. Problems like inadequate access to transportation, education, nutrition, child care, and healthcare can prolong poverty and project it into the future.

We also learned that Adams County residents are very generous and that there are a lot of resources to help people in need. Many organizations such as SCCAP are working not just to provide help, but to give people the tools and a support structure to help them climb out of poverty. I’m hopeful that both of the local incarceration reform task forces and the poverty study team can foster continuing bipartisan agreement for their proposals.

Leon Reed is a retired Congressional aide and defense consultant.