In Philadelphia's jails, pandemic-driven staff shortages, violence, and COVID infections have reached crisis levels this year as severe as anywhere in the country. Twenty-one incarcerated men have died. Riots and assaults have increased. Two men were beaten by correctional officers, caught on surveillance cameras. PCCP's next event will feature Claire Shubik-Richards, executive director of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, and David Robinson, president of AFSCME District Council 33 Local 159 representing correctional officers. They will give their views of the situation and discuss steps to deal with it.

Shubik-Richards, before taking the helm of the society, served as policy and research director for the National Campaign to Reform State Juvenile Justice Systems and previously for The Pew Charitable Trusts, where she authored studies on the overuse of incarceration. Earlier, she served on the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board investigating police misconduct. The two-century-old Pennsylvania Prison Society works to ensure humane conditions and advocates for sensible criminal justice policies.

Robinson, a former correctional officer, is president of the union representing 1,500 men and women in the Philadelphia Department of Prisons four facilities housing some 4,600 individuals. Before leading the union, Robinson was a sergeant in the Youthful Offenders program, and previously served as a correctional officer at the Riverside Correctional Facility, the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center, and the House of Correction on State Road. He worked for the city for nearly 16 years.