The Allegheny County Jail Oversight Board (JOB) meeting took place this past Thursday, August 5th at 4pm. Due to the pandemic, meetings have been conducted remotely over Microsoft Teams. When meetings do resume, they will be livestreamed on YouTube and remain available for watching later.
TL;DR: Biggest thing is Hallam asked the Warden about the Jail's new contracts to buy shotguns, less-lethal ammo, and a $347,700 training on how to use them. Read more about it HERE.
Roll Call
Everyone except for Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald was in attendance. After making a personal appearance last month, Rich Fitzgerald is back to sending a proxy to attend meetings in his stead. Unfortunately I didn't catch the name of his representative.
Justice-Related Services
Justice Related Services, or JRS, refers to a whole group of "county and state support services, diversion services, Mental Health Drug Court, and DUI Court." Representatives from 3 separate branches of JRS-- The Program, Renewal Inc., and Electronic Monitoring services-- come to the JOB meetings because they provide alternatives to incarceration at ACJ. Honestly? They usually have very little to say. The only thing I really recall is that Renewal is doing a vaccination clinic for some of their residents, so that's good.
Jail Programming
Someone (didn't catch their name either) presented on a new program allowing incarcerated people who work in the ACJ kitchen to take classes and receive certifications to help them start a career in food service after they're released. The collaboration is with Community Kitchen Pittsburgh in Hazelwood, which works with currently and formerly incarcerated people to develop culinary skills.
Darryl Coaston ("Chef D") is the Lead Chef Trainer for Community Kitchen and is teaching the classes inside the Jail. He was formerly incarcerated and apparently has a good rapport with the people inside. It sounds like the program has garnered a lot of interest. Chef D sounds cool as hell tbh
Old Business
- Incarcerated Individual's Welfare Fund
The Board confirmed that they will be hiring someone to serve as "JOB Liaison" between the Board, the public, and the Jail. It will be a full-time position through DHS. The position will be funded out of the Incarcerated Individual's Welfare Fund, which is earmarked to be spent specifically to assist incarcerated people... but the Board doesn't have its own budget and seems pretty set on using this funding mechanism
- Suicide Prevention Report
Wardens Harper and Williams were asked when the last "suspected suicide" took place, and they answered May 24, 2020. They neglected to say the name of the man who committed suicide, but it was Robert Blake. I believe Hallam asked this question because a man named Martin Bucek died inside the Jail on July 3rd just days after attempting suicide on the outside, and the Jail has released almost no information about his death. Personally, I think it's most likely that Mr. Bucek did die by suicide.
- Money Left on GTL Tablets
Still no update from Harper or GTL on what happens to the money left on people's tablet accounts after they leave the Jail. Judge Clark has been asking about this for months and Harper has continued to kick the can down the street saying that GTL is still figuring it out. Clark and the rest of the Board seem pretty fed up with this, as keeping that money is effectively just stealing. Bethany Hallam suggested in July and again at the August meeting that the County consider providing a 90-day notice of severing the contract unless they can explain this. Clark disagrees strongly with that approach and feels the Board shouldn't resort to threats.- Solitary Confinement
ACJ has released its first report on Solitary Confinement at the Jail. It covers the month of June.JOB Segregated Housing Repo... by Allegheny JOB Watch
Councilperson Hallam pointed out that the report does not actually include information about everyone in solitary confinement conditions at ACJ. It contained information about people in Segregated Housing, but according to the ballot initiative "solitary confinement" is defined by the amount of time spent in isolation, not by the location. Anyone, anywhere in the Jail could be in solitary confinement conditions-- not just those in the 8 housing pods listed in the report.
At Hallam's request, next month Harper is supposed to include everyone in solitary confinement conditions.
- Restraint Chair Subcommittee
Members Bethany Hallam, Gayle Moss, and Brad Korinski reported that they've found a vendor called Verbal Judo to teach de-escalation at the Jail, to help the Jail implement the solitary confinement initiative and stop using the restraint chair; whole Board seemed to support this
Public Comments
In the Before Times, the Board met in person in the Gold Room in the City-County Building. Public comment was only accepted in person, but people were allowed to speak for up to 5 minutes. Now that meetings are remote, the Board is accepting public comments online, all of which go to Judge Kim Clark, who hates getting them. Hates it.
She exercises a lot of editorial discretion, summarizing questions or skimming over them or leaving them out entirely. All comments are published and responded to in the meeting minutes, but no one except me reads them I think. This month Judge Clark allotted only 15 minutes of time for Public Comments, and moved on to New Business after going 2 minutes over. Note that the Public Comment submission form has a 750 character limit, so no comment could possibly take 5 whole minutes to read aloud. Frustrating.
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| Family photo of Martin Bucek provided to Brittany Hailer by his ex-wife Dolly Bucek |
Judge Clark said that multiple comments were submitted about about Martin Bucek... But she didn't actually read any of them aloud. She asked the Wardens if they can tell the Board what happened, and Deputy Williams offered simply said that his death was definitely not related to suicide but otherwise they don't know if it was an accidental or natural death. Judge Clark sounded interested in looking into the cause of death further and possibly contacting the Medical Examiner's Office.
Some Qs were about why the Board was not notified immediately of Bucek's death; Hallam asked if the reason is because Bucek technically died at UPMC Mercy Hospital, not inside the Jail. Warden Harper admitted that he doesn't feel obligated to report deaths of people that don't take place physically inside the Jail, even if those people were injured at the Jail and taken directly to the hospital from the Jail.
Q about Solitary Confinement report-- why is the reason for every episode of Segregation given as "Safety"? Asks how someone can be a danger to themselves and others for a period of 684+ days, as was the case of someone listed in the report. The Warden just said "It's for safety reasons." When pushed a bit he said that sometimes people are placed in Segregation because they pose a threat to order at the Jail, which sounded like a longer way of saying they throw people in solitary as punishment.
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| Excerpt from Solitary Confinement report. The longest reported episode was 684+ days. |
Q about why Jail website says no screenshots or recordings of video calls are allowed? Warden says it's a safety and security risk and no correctional facility in the country allows that. I haven't checked if that's true yet, but it kind of sounds fake?
New Business
Hallam proposed the continuation of the Board's policy of putting $50 on the books of every incarcerated person's commissary account, and $50 on their tablet account. Motion passed unanimously again, as it does every month.
Warden's Reports
- Warden Orlando Harper
Warden Harper had only two things to report: 1) school will start for the "juvenile population" at the end of August, and 2) 7 new corrections officers graduated from academy on July 3rd. (The same day Martin Bucek died).
Then things got spicy-- Bethany Hallam jumped in to ask the Warden about the purchases he'd requested on behalf of the Jail, for less lethal munitions, shotguns, and a training on how to use them. Harper explained this is to help them put the ballot initiative in place-- effectively swapping out mace and the restraint chair for rubber bullets. Read a more detailed post about it here: Allegheny County Jail's contract with a "SEAL Team 6 wannabe"
The Board expressed disapproval and Hallam said the Board should be notified of purchases like this and have the ability to approve or deny them; Judge Clark suggested the Board meet in an executive session to discuss before the next meeting
- Deputy Warden Laura Williams
I traditionally do not listen to Deputy Williams' reports because I think they're boring and feel like she just reads off numbers. That doesn't make it true, it's possible there are important things in there, please tell me if I'm missing it.
Only interesting thing I remember: The Jail has hired a new Health Services Administrator named John Shully(?). It's a really important job-- "Health Services Administration involves planning, directing, and coordinating medical and health services." I believe the last HSA was a woman named Janet Bunts, who quit 3 months after she started. (August 2020-November 2020). Maybe they have had other HSAs in that time, but I think they may have been operating without since November.
It seems noooooot great that the position is still posted on the Allegheny County careers website.
Kim Andrews
At the very end of the meeting Bethany Hallam referenced Kim Andrews, who is suing the Jail based off a physical assault she sustained at ACJ in 2019. The video of her assault was made public by the Tribune on July 23rd. Hallam asked why the officers that assaulted Ms. Andrews were never fired or disciplined, and what the Board can do about it.Judge Clark said she was not familiar with the video and that the meeting had already gone too long and they needed to adjourn.
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| Image via Abolitionist Law Center |
Loose Ends
- Last month Brad Korinski of the Controller's Office reported that Summit Foods is in fact in violation of their contract, with the rates it's charging for Commissary at the Jail. Commissary food is much more expensive than 5% above market rate, which I believe is what the contract dictates. This month there was no discussion of that. It is not clear if the Board plans to do anything about it.
- The Board STILL has not done a walkthrough of the Jail. It is their statutory duty to inspect the Jail every 6 months and report on it. They have not done so since sometime in 2019. They even did a training on how to do a jail inspection a few months ago (April?), but don't seem to have followed up on that in the intervening months
- No further discussion of pest issues and issues with inedible food (problems I'm sure people did ask about in Public Comments, and Judge Clark deemed unworthy of discussion this month)
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