What the Board Ignores

 Month after month people who submit Public Comments have their questions and comments ignored. When Judge Clark was head of the Board it was totally at her discretion, which was really frustrating. But now that Judge Howsie is head of the Board, it's totally at his discretion and he appears to loathe the public. 

People should at least know what comments others are submitting-- what knowledge are we missing out on while Public Comments are suppressed? The Jail Oversight Board meeting minutes do contain all the Public Comments submitted for that month but people (including me, I'm people) rarely seek them out. I plan to start publishing some of those comments every month, lightly edited. Everyone should see for themselves what the Board chooses to ignore. For the completists among us: all of them are available on the Controller's website.

Unfortunately these will all run a couple months behind as minutes aren't posted until they're approved by the Board at the following meeting, so these are from January. February's comments should be up soon.

What the Board Ignored in January

First off: This absolutely heart-wrenching comment from a woman who lost her husband to the Allegheny County Jail. I believe the Board edited out her and her husband's names and replaced them with the word "Confidential." However the name of the man who died of COVID at ACJ has been made public: Robert Harper. So this was likely written by Robert Harper's widow.

"My husband, Confidential, died after contracting covid at Allegheny County Jail. I was deeply hurt when Warden Harper said at a JOB meeting that they have been doing a "wonderful job" because only my husband has died during the pandemic. I would ask the Warden if he would consider it a success if only one of his relatives died from the virus. Also, Deputy Warden Williams has misrepresented how she treated us. It was 9 days before I even knew Confidential was hospitalized ,and I was never able to speak to my husband. I wasn't even permitted to spend his final dying moments with him.

In fact, ACJ distributed a press release to the media about my husband's death before I was able to tell my family privately of Confidential's passing. ACJ's press release stated that "jail administration has worked daily with the hospital's medical team and the family member to ensure there were continued updates related to care." Hopefully, it is now clear to JOB that ACJ did not provide me with adequate updates on my husband's medical care or treat us with a modicum of dignity."

Damn.

Here's the press release she's referring to btw, with the line in question highlighted.

But wait, there's more 🥴

On ACJ's wholly inadequate medical care:

What treatments are provided someone at ACJ after lengthy hospitalization from contracting severe long haul Covid‐19 from ACJ? Why was NO physical therapy provided since doctor’s strongly recommended long term nursing/rehab ? Why would that same person’s wheelchair be taken from that person after all muscle strength was lost? Why would a doctor there tell the person that others need the wheelchair? Are there not enough to go around?

On the solitary ban:

Have officers been provided with any training on how to comply with the solitary ban referendum? Has ACJ provided training on disciplinary alternatives, which do not rely on force or lockins, and have been successfully implemented in correctional facilities in California, Massachusetts, Chicago and Colorado, and other regions? Has the administration contacted these facilities?

 

On violating the ban:

There are widespread reports of ACJ COs using chemical irritants and rubber bullets on those housed in ACJ. This is simply unconscionable and must end immediately. As you are well aware, ACJ is one of the deadliest county jails in America, and the over reliance on these types of aggressive interventions is no doubt a significant contributing factor. The use of these weapons should be ceased immediately, and all staff who have used these weapons in the past should be investigated and any who use them in the future should be disciplined or terminated.

On decarceration:

Why are there so many people in the jail to begin with? Past studies have shown up to 80% of all held at the jail are being held pre‐trial solely for lack of ability to pay cash bail. Can the JOB work with the DA and Courts to waive cash bail and let folks await their day in court safely from home instead of caged in close‐quarters during a pandemic?

On reports that the County is stealing vacation time, regularly using forced overtime, and just generally crushing employee morale:

Why is Mr. Pilarski and Warden Harper still resisting granting the retention bonus given to all other collective bargaining agencies in the county to include vendors not directly employed by the county ‐IE ‐ Hazard Pay? The officer's union has submitted a request for the retention bonus which, per discussion in a prior meeting, was told that they needed to request to receive it ‐ now the county is resisting disbursing the bonus.

Seems pretty bad for morale!!!!!! The Jail appears to hate its own employees.

 

These questions and comments are all well-worth discussing. Howsie's contempt for the public's legitimate concern is..................... Well, it's not great. And I don't care for it, at all.