Philly jail official sues over alleged ‘sexual favoritism’ and retaliation
Terrell Bagby, who was demoted from his post as deputy commissioner in 2024, says that former prisons commissioner Blanche Carney retaliated against him over testimony in sex-discrimination lawsuit.
The day after Philadelphia voters approved a ballot measure to increase oversight over the city’s jail system, a former deputy commissioner filed a lawsuit accusing the previous leader of the Philadelphia Department of Prisons of “sexual favoritism” and retaliation.
Terrell Bagby, who has worked for the department for 28 years, was demoted from his position as deputy commissioner overseeing restorative and transitional services in February 2024 because he testified against the department’s position as part of a sex-discrimination lawsuit, according to the complaint.
The suit, filed last week in Common Pleas Court, names only the City of Philadelphia as a defendant. But it accuses former Commissioner Blanche Carney of “sexual favoritism,” which Bagby alleges arose from an “inappropriate sexual relationship” Carney had with another deputy commissioner.
The allegations in the lawsuit cast a shadow on the decision-making process in the prisons department, which has been embroiled in turmoil in recent years. The jail complex on State Road has seen a spike in the number of deaths and homicides among its population, as well as a series of escapes.
In 2022, the city settled a class-action lawsuit that highlighted the staffing crisis in the jails. The federal judge in the case further held the city in contempt last year, and ordered that $25 million be set aside in a fund to urgently remedy conditions.
The city declined to comment on the new lawsuit. The Inquirer was unable to reach Carney based on publicly available contact information.
The suit says Bagby and Carney had a rocky relationship, which stemmed from “discriminatory and inequitable treatment” of Bagby compared with the deputy with whom Carney allegedly had a relationship.
The lawsuit does not provide examples for how the “favoritism” manifested, or how a complaint Bagby filed with the city’s Employee Relations Unit in 2022 over the issue was resolved.
But the relationship further deteriorated in 2023, the suit says, after Bagby testified in a deposition as part of a federal lawsuit brought by three female employees who alleged that they were discriminated against when they were not considered for open warden positions.
The prisons department had up to four warden positions throughout the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The three female prisons employees sued the city after they were passed over for vacant positions without an interview, despite having ranked on the top of the qualified candidate list based on their civil service exam scores.
The employees alleged that the department preferred to keep the positions open instead of promoting women.
In her deposition, Carney said the three women were not promoted because they did not have the needed leadership experience to take on the role in a time of crisis.
“I needed the strongest people to keep these facilities running,” Carney testified. “I didn’t have time to train people, and they had to hit the ground running.”
But during Bagby’s deposition in August 2023, he vouched for all three, saying it was his assessment that they were ready for the job. He described one, whom he supervised directly, as “very proactive. Seeks to solve problems. She was a great employee.”
That testimony doomed Bagby’s career at the department, according to the complaint.
Days later, Carney gave Bagby a negative performance review, the suit says. And by the end of September 2023 the then-commissioner placed the deputy on what the complaint calls a “baseless” performance improvement plan.
In February 2024, weeks before Carney announced her retirement, she demoted Bagby from his deputy position.
“Bagby has been subjected to repeated instances of retaliation by his supervisor Commissioner Blanche Carney, designed to block his career advancement and to destroy his reputation within the Department,” the lawsuit says.
Jason Pearlman, Bagby’s attorney, confirmed that his client still works at the prisons department. Bagby worked as the human services program administrator during the last quarter of 2024, according to city employee data.