Advocates for reform at the Allegheny County Jail received new hope at Thursday’s Jail Oversight Board meeting. New County Executive Sara Innamorato attended along with two other new board members, continuing her shakeup of county government.
Innamorato’s mere attendance of the board’s meeting was notable after her predecessor, Rich Fitzgerald, was criticized for sending a proxy to its meetings for almost his entire 12-year tenure. That criticism grew especially loud in recent years as a string of deaths in the county jail drew attention to the Fitzgerald administration’s management of the lockup.
“This is going to be a place where there is productive dialogue,” Innamorato told reporters after the meeting. “It doesn’t mean that everything that the community demands of us is going to happen instantaneously, but there is going to be an honest answer.”
She was mostly quiet Thursday as residents made comments to the board, but longtime advocates made note of her presence.
“I am actually heartened to see our county executive here,” said Tanisha Long, an organizer with the Abolitionist Law Center. “We haven’t had one here in years.”
After public speakers repeatedly aired concerns about a lack of medical staff in the jail, Innamorato asked jail officials how they are trying to speed hiring of nurses and other staff. One responded that they hope to boost hiring incentives for medical staff.
Judge Susan Evashavik DiLucente, who sits on the board as the newly-elected president judge of the Court of Common Pleas, tried to reset the board’s tenor after 2023 was marked by internal debates between members and anger from community members.
After one advocate, Marion Damick, criticized the board for its performance last year, DiLucente responded, “We’re off to a new start, with a lot of new members, and it’s going to be a new day.”
Another board member, County Controller Corey O’Connor, welcomed the board’s new members, saying their approach to questioning jail officials “is different than what we had in the past, and having the county executive here as well, we’re able to get a lot more information.”
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Poor jail conditions and deaths of incarcerated people were a major issue in the campaign for county executive last year. Innamorato, a progressive Democrat, pledged as a candidate to take a more active role in the oversight board and jail management.
Innamorato was not the board’s only newcomer. DiLucente, elected president by her fellow Common Pleas judges late last year, and Judge Eileen Bigley replaced Judge Elliot Howsie and Judge Beth Lazzara, respectively.
The board’s three citizen-member seats were empty Thursday. Innamorato’s spokesperson told PublicSource the executive will nominate new members this month. They will need County Council approval to serve.
Several speakers said Thursday that their hopes for a more productive board are mixed with deep-seated frustration with slow progress.
“If we are not your partners, we will be your adversaries. And we do not want to do that,” said Dave Swanson, a Mennonite pastor and member of the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network. “We want to work together.”
Another resident gave a solemn reading of the names of people who died in the jail as public attendees and board members stood.
“This is an ongoing and persistent problem where our loved ones are going into the jail and they are not leaving,” Long said. “My hope is that with this newer board that these are problems we can begin to solve.”
O’Connor and Sheriff Kevin Kraus are holdovers from the last two years. So is County Councilor Bethany Hallam, a political ally of Innamorato who harshly criticized Fitzgerald’s jail management practices and often quarreled during meetings with Howsie, the board’s former chair.
While the board and the jail have fresh leadership, many problems will persist. A staffing shortage continues, stretching correctional officers thin and often requiring overtime. The jail’s medical staff has dozens of vacancies, raising more safety concerns. And some major aspects of the jail’s operation, like the arresting practices of local police departments and the judges’ choices of which defendants to confine in the jail, are entirely out of Innamorato’s control.
The jail is without a permanent leader after Warden Orlando Harper retired in September. The state appointed an interim leader to serve while Innamorato and council decide on a permanent replacement.
“I think a lot of people in this room are in general hopeful about what we can do as a new board, [with] a new warden,” resident Jodi Lincoln said during the public comment period. “The possibilities to improve the jail feel more real than ever before.”
Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter and a Report for America corps member. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.
