My name is Louise Carpino and I am the president of AFSCME, DC 47, Local 810 representing Adult Probation and Pre-trial Court Officers, Juvenile Probation Officers, and Domestic Relations Hearing Officers in the City of Philadelphia.

Local 810’s officers provide essential services to the City.
Our Adult Probation and Pre-trial Court Officers supervise over 50,000 adult offenders on the street, while our Juvenile Probation Officers are mandated to closely supervise up to 5,000 youth in the community and in residential settings. These officers perform essential services that focus primarily on two goals: Protection of the Community and Rehabilitation of the Offender.

Local 810’s Domestic Relations Hearing Officers conduct roughly 2500 support hearings per week working to protect children in Philadelphia by ensuring that they receive essential child support.

All of these departments are already understaffed.

The Courts have communicated to Local 810 that Mayor Nutter’s proposed cuts to their budget could result in the layoffs of 76 Adult Probation and/or Pre-trial Court Officers, and the layoffs of 35 Juvenile Probation and/or Domestic Relations Hearing Officers. This is unthinkable.

Mayor Nutter’s proposed cuts could also force the closing of the Courts for 19 days per year. There is already a large backup of cases in the Philadelphia Court System. Closing the Courts for 19 additional days would make that backup much larger, and could create the very distinct possibility that violent, dangerous offenders’ cases could be thrown out simply because they were not presented in time. This also is unthinkable.

So today, Local 810 is pleading with the Mayor to reconsider making any of these risky cuts to the Courts budget that could create conditions within our communities that would jeopardize public safety.

Louise Carpino/ Local 810, President/ 215-740-9695