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Philadelphia City Council To Hold Hearing In Wake Of Tacony Dungeon Case

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Philadelphia City Council plans to hold a hearing on issues stemming from the horrific case of mentally disabled people who were held captive in a Tacony basement.

City Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown says the hearing will not focus on the specifics of the Tacony basement case, because that is obviously the subject of ongoing criminal investigations. Rather she is calling for hearings to learn the bigger picture of how mentally disabled children and adults are tracked in the city's public welfare system.

"I'm clueless, quite frankly, about what the best practices about what we do with them once we get them into the system, how we track them in the system. So, the purpose of the hearings is simply to get an understanding of what those best practices are," Reynolds Brown said.

There has not been a date set yet for the hearing. It is unclear if DHS or other city agencies involved in the case will even take part. Mayoral spokesman Mark McDonald says while Mayor Nutter is sympathetic to the goals of such a hearing, the timing is, in McDonald's words, "Not right for a fruitful hearing."

Reported by Mike Dunn, KYW Newsradio 1060

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