March 2022 JOB Recap

Clocking in at just under ninety minutes, this was the shortest Jail Oversight Board meeting I've seen in my twelve(?) months of JOB watching.

It's not that there was nothing to talk about-- there tend to be multiple ongoing ACJ-related scandals happening at any given time-- but mostly because the Board was missing two of its most engaged members, Bethany Hallam and Judge Lazzara.

I've created a ten-minute edit of the March meeting for a bite-size overview of the meeting (you can also watch the entire meeting here), and there is a more detailed summary below.

Judge Beth Lazzara couldn't attend for unspecified reasons and Bethany Hallam, County Councilperson at Large and thorn in the Warden's side, couldn't make the meeting due to the last minute change of the meeting date. Hallam was at least able to send County Council President Pat Catena in her place and to his credit he managed to piss off the Warden almost immediately. Warden Harper does not like people who ask questions.

Understaffing at the Jail was the dominant theme of the meeting, thanks to the Public Commenters and to Mr. Catena, but per usual the Warden provided as little information as possible. He and Judge Howsie repeatedly deflected questions by saying this subject could only be discussed during a private Executive Session. Howsie also announced that the Warden and the Board will be holding an Executive Session before every Jail Oversight Board meeting going forward. Sketchy.

Full Recap

• Methadone Program Updates

Meetings usually kick off with some kind of informational presentation about a program or service at the Jail. This month we heard from Myesha Howes [not certain of the spelling], Assistant Deputy Director of County Office of Behavioral Health, Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Services about the Jail's plan for providing methadone to incarcerated people with Opioid Use Disorders.

The Jail is partnering with Tadiso, a local methadone provider, to implement the program. Unfortunately they will not be doing induction, or prescribing methadone to someone without a prescription, but will be limited to refilling pre-existing prescriptions. Even so this is great news! Or at least it has the potential to be great news. 

Myesha Howes discussing the Jail's methadone program

At the end of the presentation Mr. Catena hit the ground running, asking the Jail how they can be sure they'll be able to provide doses on time. Ashley Brinkman, the Jail's Health Services Administrator, gave an unsatisfying answer about the importance of collaborating with community providers but assured the Board it was under control.

There is reason to doubt Dr. Brinkman's claim.

Ms. Howes acknowledged during her presentation that Tadiso is still searching for nurses to actually run the program, and worse yet-- during Public Comments we heard that the Jail is so short on medical staff that untrained COs have been providing methadone and Suboxone to incarcerated people. 

• Suicide Prevention & IIWF Subcommittees

Without Judge Lazzara and Council Person Hallam at the meeting, no one had much to say. 

Terri Klein did report that the Pitt School of Social Work, which conducted a survey of the incarcerated population over the past year, expects to complete their survey analysis soon. Hopefully they'll be able to talk about what the survey found at the April meeting.

• Public Comments

John Kenstowicz, a social worker and PA Prison Society Volunteer, delivered his own mini-presentation about how the Jail could address its staffing crisis. He made a lot of reasonable and practical suggestions (like letting sick COs quarantine at home without using their vacation time) that will surely be ignored by County leadership. 

Jonas Caballero, a paralegal with the Abolitionist Law Center, spoke about Rich Fitzgerald's recent move to further subvert the JOB. The move? Nominating a former Warden to the Board. Citizen member Terri Klein's 3-year term on the Board is up, and rather than re-nominating this thoughtful and engaged member of the Board Fitz is suggesting William Stickman III. It's not a very subtle move, if I'm being perfectly honest!! 

Jonas Caballero delivering his public comment

Fortunately Board nominations must be approved by County Council, and the public will be able to comment on the nominations before the vote. We also know for a fact that Council President Pat Catena is not very impressed with Fitz's leadership re: the Jail. No further details yet but I'll keep yinz posted.

Finally, Brian Englert spoke about (what else?) understaffing. Englert is the President of the Allegheny County Prison Employee's Independent Union, the union that represents Corrections Officers at ACJ. He is remarkably frank about working conditions in the Jail, and what he shares provides a lot of insight into how the Jail administration operates. The COs are apparently doing a lot of forced overtime with very few breaks, and the County refuses to give them hazard pay, retention bonuses, or higher overtime pay.

Englert is the one who revealed that COs have been administering methadone. He stated outright that he didn't understand how the methadone program could work when they are already so, so understaffed. According to Englert there were thirteen overnight shifts in February that completely lacked medical and/or mental health staff. It's simply not realistic that people with methadone prescriptions will be getting their medication in a timely fashion.

Which, by the way, the Warden has owned up to.  I think this particular exchange is worth posting verbatim:

PAT CATENA: I understand you had an executive session today but for the, to the general public-- I mean, we talked about the staff shortages and we know there's medical personnel shortages and what have you. I guess 'What are we doing to correct any of this and make sure the inmates are getting their medications on time?' is the bottom line. Anyone can answer that. I mean, I'm--

WARDEN HARPER: We do everything in our power to make sure that our incarcerated individuals get their medications. Now, it may not be on time because we do encounter some staffing issues, but we do everything in our power to make sure that they get the medications that they're required to get. And my staff do a real good job doing that.

CATENA: I appreciate everything that your staff does, Warden, but again, I've heard lots of-- gotten lots of complaints about it not happening in a timely fashion.

HARPER: Mr. Catena, I just said-- Again, sometimes it does not. Sometimes it don't. 

CATENA: Is there something we can do better? 

HARPER: Give me more nurses.

CATENA: Is there a reason-- I mean, you're smiling so is there-- I mean, is there something else you want to say?

HARPER: No, it's not anything else I want to say. Just like I've-- we've been saying is, I'm not going to be talking about staff. 

CATENA: When you say "give me more," what do you mean? 

HARPER: What I'm saying Mr. Catena, I'm not going to continue to talk about staffing issues in this setting. But what I'm saying is... We do everything in our power to provide the medications in a timely fashion, and sometimes medications are late. And I'm just going to leave it at that.

I still kind of can't believe he admitted that so freely. I used to wonder what would happen without Laura Williams running cover for the Warden-- turns out Ashley Brinkman is not up to the task. If we're looking for silver linings, maybe we can expect more casual admissions of dysfunction going forward.