Advocates and members of an oversight board criticized the Allegheny County Jail this week for problems with notifying people their incarcerated loved ones have been hospitalized.
They claimed the jail’s notification policy is inconsistently applied, leading to confusion and fear among relatives struggling to get information.
“What happens now is, the family is not notified and is left to rumors,” said Jail Oversight Board member Muhammad Ali Nasir, who goes by Man-E. “It’s about basic respect and dignity.”
During a contentious board meeting Thursday, some board members pressed their colleagues to adopt a motion directing jail leadership to draft a new notification policy to be presented in June.
But the board voted down the matter 4-2 following a brief but heated debate.
On Friday, board member Rob Perkins said the vote is irrelevant because a new policy will likely be drafted anyway by jail officials in coming weeks.
“I expect the jail to produce the improved policy that balances public safety and humane impact on the people who are impacted,” he said.
‘We were never called’
Public comment at the board meeting was supportive of an updated notification policy.
Diana Hull, of the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network, urged the board to vote yes to ensure family notification is made.
“No family should have to learn about it days later, or through rumor or not at all,” she said. “A medical emergency is a moment of deep worry for a family, and when someone is taken to the hospital, their family deserves to know.
“A simple phone call can provide reassurance, reduce confusion and help maintain trust between the jail and the community that it serves.”
Tanisha Long, with the Abolitionist Law Center, also urged the board to act, recounting what started her on the path of advocacy for those incarcerated.
Long told the board that her mother was incarcerated in Washington County and spent three months in solitary confinement, during which she was hospitalized seven times.
“Her condition deteriorated, and no one knew,” Long said. “They didn’t notify us. We were never called. Had we been able to intervene sooner, she wouldn’t be in a permanent care facility.”
Burden on sheriff’s office
The issue quickly became contentious when board discussion began.
While board member Bethany Hallam urged her colleagues to vote yes, Allegheny County Common Pleas Court President Judge Susan Evashavik DiLucente said that there is already a policy in place.
Perkins, who participated in Thursday’s meeting by phone, said Friday that the current policy is inconsistently enforced.
“Right now, it’s ad hoc, case by case,” he said. “There should be a more consistent policy that would make it easier on the jail as well.”
But during the meeting, Evashavik DiLucente said a new policy would impact the sheriff’s office, which is tasked with guarding incarcerated people while they are hospitalized.
In an ideal scenario, the sheriff’s office would have two deputies with the incarcerated person receiving treatment to ensure security were the patient’s family to show up at the hospital.
But Evashavik DiLucente said the sheriff has neither the budget nor the manpower to accomplish that.
“In a perfect world, it would be great to pass this policy,” she said. “But we don’t have a perfect world.”