FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 1/26/07

CONTACT: Susan Madrak, Press Secretary

215-636-0660 ext. 19

Cell: 267-879-9789

madrak@knoxforphilly.com

TOM KNOX: ‘WE HAVE A BROKEN SYSTEM THAT NEEDS TO CHANGE’

 PHILADELPHIA – Mayoral candidate Tom Knox said today that the City of Philadelphia has “a broken prison system that needs to change.”

“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again,” Knox said. “We just can’t arrest our way out of our problems.”

His statement was in response to a ruling yesterday by a federal judge that the City of Philadelphia violated the constitutional rights of hundreds of city prison inmates last summer by placing inmates in holding cells for extended periods of time and in greater numbers than they were designed to hold.

“We have a real problem with our prison system. More than half of the people released locally will return at least three times,” he said. “If you improve support services to prisoners – if you make sure they know how to read and write, you give them some kind of career training and you make sure there are enough probation officers to help place them in jobs and keep them on the right path, you won’t have so many of the same people taking up space at $80 a day.”

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