Allegheny County Jail Must Reduce Spread of Covid-19
The Green Party of Allegheny County calls for universal testing of inmates, staff, and visitors inside the county jail.
The following post was authored by Jay Walker, GPOAC Chair and edited by Ron Gavalik, Media Coordinator.
The Green Party of Allegheny County calls upon the Allegheny County Jail Oversight Board to protect inmates and reduce the spread of Covid-19 throughout the jail and the county. The current pandemic is a crisis, treated as an emergency situation by municipalities across the state.
The GPOAC in coalition with numerous community organizations are asking for universal testing of inmates, staff, and visitors at the jail as has been conducted in the Montgomery County and Dauphin County jails. A May 7th PennLive article reported that Dauphin County did not find any positive cases when only testing those who showed symptoms. After deciding to do universal testing, Dauphin found 13 positive cases.
At last Thursday’s Jail Oversight Board meeting, jail officials repeatedly stated they were consulting with the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD). Members of the GPOAC have expressed to the Board of Health that not enough is being done to protect the welfare of inmates and the community from the pandemic threat.
The jail keeps citing they’re following all CDC and Pennsylvania Department of Health guidelines to rationalize doing the bare minimum for inmates at the jail. Purely meeting minimal federal and state standards sounds a lot like frequent arguments by the ACHD that it’s doing enough when it comes to enforcement of air quality. We should not be afraid to raise our standards to do more to protect the health of Allegheny County residents.
At last week’s Jail Oversight Board meeting, Warden Orlando Harper said officials are trying to stop the spread of the virus, when he discussed why inmates cannot speak with their attorneys. The GPOAC would like this to be true when it comes to testing inmates and not just when it comes to limiting their constitutional rights. We ask that the Board of Health direct the Allegheny County Health Department to advise the Allegheny County Jail to rapidly increase testing to do a better job of tracking the spread of Covid-19 in the jail. Again, this is an emergency situation and our county government should reflect that urgency in it’s operations.
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