Montgomery County Reforms Probation and Parole System Following ACLU Lawsuit

PHILADELPHIA – The American Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania have ended a class-action lawsuit in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania against Montgomery County after the county implemented a number of reforms to its probation and parole system. ACLU and ACLU-PA were joined by the law firm WilmerHale in the litigation.

The decision to end the lawsuit comes as Montgomery County has made meaningful progress in reforming its probation and parole revocation system.

When the lawsuit was filed in 2021, Montgomery County was incarcerating virtually every individual who was accused of violating the terms of their supervision –even for non-criminal rule violations like missing curfew– and keeping them behind bars for months until their first hearing. People had no opportunity to argue that they should be released from jail pending their revocation hearings.

Attorneys for ACLU, ACLU-PA, and WilmerHale had argued that Montgomery County's automatic and prolonged detention system violates basic due process rights because it fails to consider whether detention is necessary in the first place, and fails to provide "prompt" revocation hearings, as required by both the state and federal constitutions.

Since the lawsuit was announced, Montgomery County has created a Detention Hearing Officer ("DHO") program that has addressed many of the violations that prompted the lawsuit to begin with. The Program imposes limits on when people can be detained pending revocation proceedings at the outset. Where people are detained, they are guaranteed a detention hearing within five business days of their detention, where they have the opportunity to argue for their release pending their revocation hearings. Additionally, individuals are guaranteed an initial revocation hearing within ten calendar days of their detention hearing, where –if still in jail– they can again seek release.

A review of county data since the implementation of the DHO program shows that Montgomery County has provided detention hearings within five business days for 95% of cases with a scheduled detention hearing.

“Even a few days in jail–let alone months–causes devastating harm to people’s jobs, housing, childcare, and health, and makes it even harder to fight their charges in court,” said Allison Frankel, Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU. “The ability to swiftly challenge detention is critical, both to protect due process and to keep families and communities together.”

“When we filed our lawsuit in 2021, Montgomery County was consistently violating the constitutional rights of individuals in the county’s parole and probation programs by delaying required due process for months,” said Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “Due process, especially a hearing, must occur much more quickly to prevent people being wrongly detained. We are pleased that the county has made changes to provide people with more timely hearings and opportunities to argue for release from detention. To be clear, Montgomery County’s policies on criminal legal reform are not perfect, but they are improved from where they were when we started a few years ago.”

"Our clients, with no opportunity to be heard, were imprisoned for an average of 70 days before ever seeing a judge. They had no opportunity at all to contest their detention,” said Lori Martin, litigation counsel at WilmerHale LLP. “We are pleased that Montgomery County adopted policies and practices to reduce this time substantially, and took meaningful actions to increase due process for individuals detained for alleged probation or parole violations.”

You can find more information on the lawsuit at aclupa.org/montco.

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