THAT PENNSYLVANIA voters will go to the polls in a few months to select candidates lurked in my mind Tuesday as I attended a couple of events looking at the house of mirrors known as the Philadelphia court system.
Because politics clings to the issue like fog on a moor, it may be the best of times or the worst of times.
The best because the people we elect and expect to serve us are focused on doing something for us. The worst because real needs can be lost in political posturing.
The day began at the National Constitution Center with a hearing of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs, summoned by Sen. Arlen Specter, the second hearing following last month's four-part series on the court system in the Inquirer. Specter's best idea is pouring federal money on the problem, and his biggest surprise was hearing that Philadelphia fugitives are not entered in the FBI's National Crime Information Center, operational since 1967.
Why not? he asked David Preski, of the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania. "Logistic problems," Preski said.
For 40 years?
Our fugitives will be added starting in May, he said.
Tuesday's focus was on fugitives, mostly defendants who skip rather than show up for their day in court. Philadelphia has 47,000 of them in the wind and, over the years, they have run up $1 billion in uncollected forfeited bail money, which was a point of contention.
Key witness at the hearing was new D.A. Seth Williams, who said that one of three defendants doesn't show up for at least one hearing in the often too-long judicial process. Since you can't have a trial without a defendant, the system is "Valhalla for the defense attorney," he said, adding that a solution might be trials in absentia.
Later that day, U.S. Rep Joe Sestak, who is challenging Specter in the Democratic primary, had a news conference in his campaign office on the same subject. Most reporters snapped to attention when the discussion switched from the criminal-justice system to politics, following a legitimate question from KYW NewsRadio's Steve Tawa. (Sestak graciously thanked Tawa for the opening he knew would come.)
I'll skip the politics for the program. Sestak wants an 18-month national study to develop a $100-million pilot project that would be implemented in Philadelphia and five other cities.
