The Philadelphia Prisons System (PPS) hired its current Deputy Commissioner of Prisons based on gender and without regard to qualification, according to a lawsuit filed this past February by Executive Director of the Office of Special Events Harriet Spencer. City Paper reported last week that Spencer, an African-American woman with a bachelor's degree, master's degree in human services, and a law degree from Temple, has expressed her interest in the position since Thomas Costello was Commissioner of Prisons in 2006. But when the position last opened up in 2009, the PPS hired Clyde Gainey, an African-American male, without even advertising the position.
Spencer claims that in doing so, not only did the PPS overlook more qualified candidates such as herself, but it contradicted its own qualifications for the position, which require that candidates possess at least a bachelor's degree. Gainey, Spencer says, does not have a degree. Although his records indicate he attended both St. Augustine's College and Philadelphia Community College (CCP), St. Augustine's confirmed he never received a degree and CCP refused to answer the question. Spencer argues therefore that PPS intentionally overlooked her because of her gender.
In 2006, then-Commissioner Costello began working to promote Spencer to the position... but retired before the promotion was complete. When Costello's successor, Leon King, stepped in in 2006, he promoted someone else. Spencer alleged gender discrimination then as well, but the lawsuit ended in a confidential settlement. According to King, despite Costello's endorsement, Spencer was denied the position because other deputy commissioners did not like her for the position and King "didn't want to cause too much drama."
So Spencer, who has worked her way through the ranks of PPS, even serving for a time as head of the Philadelphia Office for the Reentry of Ex-Offenders, lost out to the undereducated, underqualified Gainey. This has put the spotlight on current Prisons Commissioner Louis Giorla to explain the decision. Former Commissioner King is himself skeptical of the hiring. "The Prisons System is a complex, multi-million dollar corporation," he says. "Where else in American can someone without a degree be in charge of hundreds of correctional officers, a $227 million budget, mental health services, capital projects, you name it?" This is the question that will beg an answer when trial begins in October.
