New data could be the answer to the woes of Philadelphia prisons.
Leon King, commissioner of the Philadelphia Prison System, discussed the system's increased use of statistics for prisons in an event held by the Penn Criminology department.
He believes that the data collected through the prison's new data-gathering strategy will be essential in changing the cash-strapped prison system.
One of the largest budget problems within prisons is the cost of medical services, which amounts to $50 million of the system's $190 million budget.
The prison system is using the new statistics to find ways to trim its budget and increase efficiency.
"You can't convince people to change if you don't have information," King said.
He added that either prisons have to improve their rehabilitation programs or the city will have to build more prisons to quell the rising inmate population.
"Right now we attack the problem when it arises. There aren't a lot of proactive measures," he said.
King hopes to change all that with the new system by tracking issues such as the use of force or restricted movement in prisons.
For example, prison officials discovered that the increase in the number of inmates led to prisoners spending more time in their cells, which makes them more likely to become aggressive.
Criminology graduate student Heather Cromwell agreed with his decision to use empirical evidence to initiate change within the prison system.
"King has obviously done a lot to use data in his work effectively. I think he did a great job of using data to explain the current issues that jails are facing."
Still, according to King, numbers are only the means to an end.
"When you don't give wardens an articulated goal it's very hard to accomplish anything," King said.
He is working with the prison wardens to address specific problems revealed by this new information.
"We make wardens look at cases to zero-in on issues," he said. "We need to find out exactly where things are going wrong."
Students felt that they had gained insight into the issues facing the Philadelphia prison system because of King's presentation.
"I haven't had any previous knowledge of how the system works," College senior Nathan Tiper said. "Hearing about personalities the commissioner has to deal with like the actual wardens rather than just numbers makes the job very interesting."
