The city will pilot its Kensington “wellness court” initiative Wednesday after Mayor Cherelle Parker signed an executive order Tuesday allowing police to take people into custody for certain summary offenses that were decriminalized under former Mayor Jim Kenney.
Parker’s order, effective immediately, reverses Kenney’s 2016 policy, which made four summary offenses – disorderly conduct, failure to disperse, obstructing highways and other public passages, and public intoxication – punishable only by civil penalties or tickets. It names criminal trespass in place of failure to disperse.
The order also officially establishes the wellness court program, which gives people processed through the court a choice between drug treatment and criminal consequences.
“The pilot should allow a person who has been arrested the opportunity for same-day physical and behavioral health assessment, basic medical care and withdrawal management, diversion, and intake for treatment,” the order states.
At a Tuesday press conference, Parker said the initiative is part of her administration’s “comprehensive strategy to restore community and improve the quality of life.”
Chief Public Safety Director Adam Geer described the initiative as a tool for police “to engage individuals committing low-level crimes and using drugs in an open-air drug market and deflect them from our prisons and more severe criminal penalties.”
“We can treat those folks with dignity and decency, and we can also continue to reinforce that the community deserves to be delivered from the trauma of living in an open-air drug market,” Geer said.
Under the new program, police will transport individuals arrested for the targeted offenses to the "Kensington wellness support center,” Geer said, previously known as the Police Assisted Diversion (PAD) office, at B Street and Lehigh Avenue.
There, a nurse will determine whether people require immediate medical attention, Geer said. Those needing care will be taken to Temple Episcopal Hospital, located across the street.
The executive order describes the PAD office as “a triage center.”
People who do not require medical care will be checked for outstanding warrants, Geer said. Those with one or more warrants will be represented in virtual bench warrant court at the PAD office by a public defender from the Defender Association of Philadelphia. People who are unable to resolve their warrants will be transferred to a Philadelphia correctional facility.
Typically, warrants from outside Philadelphia cannot be resolved so quickly, according to Andrew Pappas, managing director of pretrial services for the Defender Association. Without a system in place to deal with out-of-county warrants, those people are typically transferred to the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center (PICC) on State Road, Pappas said. However, Geer said the city plans to “appeal” to other counties to lift warrants.
“Ultimately, it's going to be up to the county as we continue to work through our relationship around these types of issues,” Geer said.
If no warrants are found or warrants are resolved, people will undergo an assessment by staff from the city’s Department of Behavior Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS), according to Geer. The city will provide additional legal counsel before people appear before a wellness court judge, he added.
DBHIDS staff will use a “modified [American Society of Addiction Medicine] assessment” to determine the appropriate level of care for each person and make recommendations to the judge, according to a city spokesperson.
The ASAM assessment is widely regarded as the gold standard for evaluating whether a person requires inpatient or outpatient care, 30-day detox, long-term recovery services, or other forms of treatment.
Following the DBHIDS assessment, people will be transferred to the 24th and 25th Police District headquarters at 3901 Whitaker Ave., where they will appear before a judge and be given the choice of diversion or criminal consequences.
If an individual chooses diversion, the court will approve that path, and the judge will monitor their progress, Geer said. Successful completion of treatment will result in the expungement of the summary charge, he added.
Managing Director Adam Thiel said the city has treatment beds available but did not specify the number allocated for each level of care. With the recent opening of the city’s Riverview Wellness Center, Thiel said the city added 336 beds, though he noted those are for “later on in the continuum of care,” reserved for people who have completed a 30-, 60-, or 90-day treatment program.
“There are beds available now for all types of treatment throughout the ecosystem,” Thiel said. “We've been assured by private providers, some of which are here today, that there is additional capacity on that front end for additional beds for anybody who's willing to raise their hand and come in for treatment.”
If someone declines diversion or has it revoked, they will proceed to a summary trial the same day, Geer said.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner expressed his support for the initiative in a statement Tuesday, saying his office “fully supports criminologically sound, evidence-based approaches to address addiction that save lives, stop the spread of disease, reduce addiction, and improve the quality of life for everyone in and around Kensington.”
Krasner said he looks forward to working with Parker, police, public defenders, and community members.
"We are hopeful that, as wellness court starts, and evolves it will save lives, reduce addiction, and benefit us all," he wrote in the statement.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Pennsylvania raised constitutional concerns about the program in a December letter to the Parker administration, stating the initiative “raises more questions than it answers.”
In October, harm reduction advocates also criticized the use of criminal consequences to coerce people into treatment, arguing it is both ineffective and medically dangerous.
During Tuesday’s press conference, City Councilmember Quetcy Lozada reaffirmed her commitment to Parker’s plans for Kensington and thanked state Sen. Anthony Williams, who represents Senate District 8, for his support.
Lozada said Williams told her, “‘I want to stand with you as you re-imagine the Kensington community.’”
“And not everyone was willing to do that,” Lozada said. “There were more people who said, ‘Quetcy, you're going to be a one-termer … Quetcy, you're going to kill people.’ And at the end of the day, I recognize and I am comfortable with the decisions that I make every day, because I have leaders like them around me who say, ‘We can do it.’”
Parker and Williams both suggested collaboration between the city and state on policies related to drug use, though they did not provide specifics. Williams said he will announce “some things in the next couple weeks” in Harrisburg.
“We're going to close the door on this process and add some of the power from the state, bring it down to local government,” Williams said.
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