Jail COVID Numbers

ceived a financial incentive of $750,000, which will be paid in additional monthly installments of just over $20,000 a month for 36 months.

Also important to note is that these numbers weren’t pulled out of thin air. They were calculated as a percentage of revenue based on a daily jail population of more than 2,300 inmates. So, now there is a financial incentive to keep the population up at a time when many advocates are calling for drastically reduced populations.

Making matters worse, not only is the county making money off its inmate popula- tion, the money isn’t even go- ing back into the jail’s Inmate Welfare Fund. That has some elected officials up in arms.

“This is literally the defi- nition of a racket,” says Allegheny County Councilor Bethany Hallam, a member of the Jail Oversight board. “Just take phone calls for exam- ple. The county receives 65 percent of all revenue made from phone calls. So, just by not trying to make a profit we could make phone calls 65 percent cheaper for inmates.

“But instead, the county is going to profit $4.3 million by privatizing services for basic human needs. This contract was negotiated in the dark. Neither the public nor this board were included in the process. There was no transparency whatsoever. We couldn’t get any information about this deal until it was signed and the county secured its profit, which included a bonus just for signing on three-quarters-of-a-million dollars.”

Hallam said she and other board members have wanted the county for some time to consider making all phone calls for inmates free. But in recent months as they asked about that, they were told by jail officials that the contract was being negotiated and they couldn’t discuss it.

The county has a lot of discretion when selecting bids from contractors. The only requirement is that they select the most competitive bid. But Hallam believes the only cri- teria used here was choosing the best deal for the county, not the best deal for the incar- cerated population.

At this point, Hallam says there are a few options to rectify the situation now and in the future. First, the county council can legislate that the county will not profit off of people in the jail. Secondly, according to the contract, the county can opt-out of the deal at any time with a 90-day notice. That, she says, needs to happen.

“Any profit made off of members of our most vulnerable population is disgusting,” Hallam says. “This is not a good deal for incarcerated people in our county. It incentivizes the county to keep population numbers at the jail high at a time when everyone says our jail population needs to be smaller. It’s especially disconcerting that this deal was made in the middle of a pandemic.”

NEWS

ALLEGHENY COUNTY JAIL NOW HAS 28 SUSPECTED CASES OF COVID-19

BY CHARLIE DEITCH - PITTSBURGH CURRENT EDITOR CHARLIE@PITTSBURGHCURRENT.COM

As of July 6, the Allegheny County Jail has 31 possible coronavirus cases–25 inmates and six employees are currently awaiting the results of tests.

The number of pending and new cases of the virus had been stable at the jail until June 29 when the ACJ listed on its website that two employees had tested positive for the virus. At that time, four more employees and 13 incarcerated individuals had tested positive. The ACJ updates it’s coronavirus stats daily. So far, 28 inmates out of 148 tested have been diagnosed with COVID-19; all have recovered.

Last week, several employees at the ACJ told the Current, they believe the cause of the spike is due to puzzling quarantine procedures and a drastic increase in new inmates.

Several employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, say that an overcrowded intake wing and inconsistent quarantine procedures, along with other flawed processes, are the likely culprits for the increase.

By rule, all new inmates at the Allegheny County Jail are or- dered to be held in quarantine for 14 days before being allowed in with the general population. But many incarcerated individu- als aren’t getting a full two weeks of quarantine. Here’s what’s happening:

By ACJ rule, all new bookings must be held in a cell with another person as a suicide-prevention measure. As one inmate comes off quarantine and moved into the general population, another person is moved into the cell. But while the first inmate may be on day 10 or 12 of his quarantine, his new cellmate may only be on day 3. The first inmate’s quarantine has been disrupt- ed by possible exposure, however, they are still moved out at the end of the quarantine if they are asymptomatic.

The increase of potential cases at the jail tracks with what has ben also happening at the county level. Today, the county announced 218 new cases of COVID-19, yet another new oneday record. Since Friday, there have been 672 new cases over the Fourth of July weekend, which saw it’s share of unmasked events, including a “boat parade” for President Trump. Many advocates and elected officials have been concerned about a major outbreak at the jail and have requested universal testing, like other jails and prisons across the country have done. Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner along with Allegheny County Councilor Bethany Hallam sit on the jail board and attempted to have universal testing mandated on May 7. ACJ officials were against the testing and the board voted it down.