Shapiro touts success as state attorney general
Attorney General Josh Shapiro delivered an update of what his office has accomplished since his 2016 election during a stop at the Butler Eagle on Wednesday.
“What the office looked like when I was sworn in nearly three years ago, I could tell you it was a mess,” Shapiro said. “We were undermanned and underwomanned. We should be an agency over 900 people, we were down in the 700s. Lost a significant amount of talent. We were no longer diverse and strong. So, I set us on a path to rebuild the office.”
Shapiro said he rebuilt the state's chief law enforcement agency.
“I think we're the strongest, smartest, most diverse staff in the history of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said.
For about an hour, Shapiro fielded questions and spoke about the issues that have defined his office since his election, varying from the Catholic clergy's sex abuse scandal to the legal action taken against big pharma and his efforts to arrest corrupt public officials.
Shapiro emphasized his work in rebuilding the office after taking over from his predecessor, Kathleen Kane, who resigned in 2016 after being convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice related to leaking grand jury information to reporters in Philadelphia.He noted the office now has a chief integrity officer for the first time in its history, as well as its first diversity and inclusion director, who is “focused on making sure our staff looks like the people of Pennsylvania.”Shapiro said the better-staffed office is busier now, with case referrals up 39 percent. This number represents referrals for prosecution to his office from counties across the state, including Butler County, which has referred several cases to Shapiro in the past few years.The state's chief prosecutor pointed out cases are referred to his office for a variety of reasons, and cited the public's confidence.“People aren't referring cases to an office they don't have confidence in,” Shapiro said. “The point is law enforcement trusts us, the community trusts us and they're sending their work to us because they know we can do it.”The attorney general's office costs the state about $100 million to operate each year, and Shapiro said that is money well spent.“One of the things we're really proud of is that for every dollar you invest in our office, we actually return $10 to the commonwealth,” Shapiro said, explaining that money recovered from companies through legal action goes into the state treasury, as well as being returned to taxpayers represented by his office.
Shapiro said the office's top priority is the state's drug problem.“Our No. 1 priority is tackling the heroin, fentanyl and opioid crisis,” Shapiro said, adding that he believes law enforcement often approaches the problem in the wrong way.“We have to begin the conversation understanding that drug addiction is a disease, not a crime,” Shapiro said. “You have to be willing to go to the supply chain of the crisis, and so for a lot of law enforcement, that decision is made to go to a street corner and arrest a dealer and then the conversation ends.”Shapiro was quick to stress this doesn't mean he is not pursuing drug dealers.“We've arrested our fair share of dealers — on average, five drug dealers a day, every single day I've been in office. That is an incredibly high number of dealers, and that is all across Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said. “But if you stop there, you're not going to solve the problem. You have to ask yourself, 'OK, well, how does this occur that someone goes to the street corner to buy heroin?'”For that, according to Shapiro, authorities have to target “pill mill docs” where he noted four out of five heroin users begin their habit.“That's their pathway to addiction,” Shapiro said, explaining his office has cracked down on doctors and medical personnel who over-prescribe drugs.
But, Shapiro said, it doesn't end there as he moves up the supply chain to the manufacturers.He stressed his office's legal pursuit against the Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharmaceutical.“You've gotta get the Sacklers as well,” Shapiro said. “My plan is to reach into their greedy pockets and pull out the ill-gotten gains, and return them to the people of Pennsylvania who have been suffering.”Shapiro warned against politicians potentially using money won in the agreed-upon settlement with five pharmaceutical companies — three distributors and two manufacturers — of $49 billion between 49 states for efforts besides addiction treatment.“We do not want that money wasted. It's gotta be done for treatment,” Shapiro said.
During the meeting, Shapiro also talked about his efforts to stem college debt fraud and said his office returned $51 million to students who were scammed by for-profit colleges during his three years in office.Shapiro also noted his efforts to force Highmark and UPMC to sign a 10-year agreement that would allow patients from either network to continue to cross-mingle.“I hope what we are known for is we're willing to take on these big fights, and we're willing to be the lawyer for the people who are often forgotten,” Shapiro said. “And Highmark-UPMC is a great example.”Shapiro's visit was part of a tour of various publications throughout the state.
