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Outreach worker Kenneth Harris engages with a client outside Somerset Station. (Emma Lee/WHYY)
If you take SEPTA’s Market-Frankford Line to Somerset Station and exit onto Kensington Avenue, you might run into someone like Kenneth Harris.
He’s an outreach specialist for Merakey, a social services agency that recently partnered with the authority to help people struggling with homelessness and addiction who take refuge in the transit system.
“I hate that somebody is stuck in that rut,” said Harris. “Active addiction is a horrible situation and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”
New structures at the Somerset station aim to keep people from loitering at the exits and give riders a clear path. (Emma Lee/WHYY)
A Salvation Army program helps sex workers survive in Philly It can also lead them to a new life inquirer.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from inquirer.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Since the initiative began in Philadelphia, the local prison population has decreased by 43%. The city has closed its House of Corrections and avoided the construction of a new prison.
By 2022, the initiative aims to reduce the city s jail population by 58% from its 2015 level. With the new grant money, the city will target the following reform measures:
•Providing early bail review hearings to people held in jail on low amounts of bail
•Increasing early diversion opportunities through the Police-Assisted Diversion Program
•Improving connections to treatment and services for people on community supervision with a mental illness
•Increasing investments in community-driven reforms through a criminal justice microgrant fund.