I keep 4pm on the first Thursday of the month blocked off on my calendar for Jail Oversight Board meetings. This month the Board is throwing me-- the March meeting will be on WEDNESDAY??!?!
IN PERSON!!?!???!
The Jail Oversight Board will hold its March meeting on Wednesday March 2nd in the City-County Building in downtown Pittsburgh. The meeting will be in the "Gold Room" on the 4th floor. The public is welcome to attend. No vaccination card required for entry. I'm not certain if masks are still required, so best to bring one just in case. Due to the change of date (Wednesday?!??) Bethany Hallam, County Councilperson and firebrand, will be unable to attend the meeting.
The Agenda:
Here are some topics I expect to come up at this meeting (or that SHOULD come up...).
Food service and Commissary
This week a Facebook post from a former Summit food service employee went viral. It provides a truly nauseating glimpse of what it's like to work in the Jail's kitchen:
Not to mention..... Summit Foods continues to overcharge for commissary items MONTHS after the Controller's Office demonstrated that it was out of compliance with the contract. Is Summit in compliance with ANY part of its contract...?!
Solitary Confinement
Yep. Solitary confinement. The practice that the people of Allegheny County worked so hard to end continue at ACJ seemingly unabated.
I've also heard tell that people are STILL being exposed to chemical agents like mace, despite the ban. Has anyone bothered to check and see if the Jail has removed the banned supplies? Has anyone checked if employees are still carrying OC spray?
We know they're damn sure still carrying the rifles and shotguns the Board voted to ban in September.
Understaffing
Brian Englert, the President of the Allegheny County Independent Prison Employee's Union, has a theory: the Warden is intentionally understaffing the Jail. He believes this is a form of "unionbusting"-- fewer COs, fewer union employees. Turns out the ranking staff at the Jail (Majors, Lieutenants, etc) are not covered by the union collective bargaining agreement, while rank-and-file COs are.
Another interesting facet of the understaffing crisis is this: as long as the Jail is understaffed, it cannot comply with the Solitary Confinement initiative. Jail policy requires a certain ratio of staff to incarcerated people in order for the incarcerated to have out of cell time; if they can't make the ratio, they're not required to give out of cell time. Currently it is impossible for everyone incarcerated to get 4+ hrs/day out of cell. And the fewer officers there are, the less out of cell time they can provide. And the less out of cell time is required, the fewer staff they need.... So keeping the jail understaffed appears to save the County money while also violating civil rights. A win-win!
NOTE ON PUBLIC COMMENTS: Judge Howsie took over as the Chair of the Jail Oversight Board in January, and as soon as he did he made it clear he's not interested in hearing from the public. At the January meeting he announced that Public Comments submitted online would no longer be read at meetings at all, though he softened his stance at the February meeting and did bring up some Public Comments. I'm not sure what to expect this time around-- online comments may be sidelined and the Public Comment time might be devoted solely to in person commenters. (The Board does still get every comment by email though.)
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