Prisons commissioner points to Remick oversight gains: staffing up, medical backlog cleared, population down

Michael Resnick, Commissioner of the Philadelphia Department of Prisons, told the committee the department has made measurable progress under court monitoring in the Remick litigation and thanked Council for budgetary support.

Reading directly from monitors' findings, Resnick said PDP "achieved more progress in this reporting period than it has in any previous reporting period" and reported that the jail system "increased security staffing by more than 60% from 241 new officers in 2024 to 395 in 2025" with a 92% first‑year retention rate.

Resnick described health‑care improvements: medical and specialty appointment backlogs fell from 1,587 in 2022 to 245 by Dec. 31, 2025, and he said there was "no medical backlog" as of April 2026. He also said the department reduced its average daily population from 4,545 in the second half of 2024 to 3,526 in the second half of 2025 and noted a week in Easter 2026 with a population of 3,281.

The commissioner pointed to operational changes intended to improve safety and reentry outcomes: distribution of more than 3,000 tablets for legal research and family contact, expansion of reentry programming and a Reentry Center opened in September 2025 to centralize workforce, housing navigation and benefit access. He also listed security upgrades — no‑climb fencing, tethered drones, expanded canine force, Tech84 body scanners and an RFID armband system to track movements within facilities.

Council members asked follow‑up questions about barriers to program enrollment and release practices. Resnick said security and staffing limit inclusion of medium‑custody inmates in some vocational programs and that the department is developing a "skill center" on site as well as an assessment tool to tailor services and discharge planning.

On an ICE‑related question, Resnick said the department does not proactively notify ICE and follows Third Circuit precedent: it will detain only on a judicial warrant; he said the last request to sign a consent form for an ICE interview occurred in July 2020.

Why it matters: The department's testimony documented compliance progress under court oversight, tangible staffing gains and operational changes that bear directly on inmate care, medical access and reentry supports. Council members pressed for data on PREA incidents and visitation metrics.

What's next: Committee members requested written follow‑up with PREA statistics, visitation counts and clarifications about who has access to medical‑monitoring data; the committee recessed and scheduled further business for April 15, 2026.