A consent order submitted this morning brings the Allegheny County Jail (ACJ) inches away from implementing sweeping mental healthcare policy changes, including introducing counseling for incarcerated people with mental disabilities for the first time and addressing short staffing issues.
The consent order is the agreed-upon settlement of the 2020 Howard v. Williams class action lawsuit, which alleged the jail continuously failed to provide adequate mental healthcare and discriminately and aggressively treated people with psychiatric disabilities.
The suit was filed on behalf of all current and future people incarcerated at the jail with psychiatric disabilities by law firms Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP, the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, and the Abolitionist Law Center.
"This settlement marks a crucial step forward in ensuring that people are provided with actual treatment and not facing life-threatening conditions while incarcerated at the ACJ," said Alexandra Morgan-Kurtz, the deputy director of the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project, in a release announcing the order.
Slightly more than a rubber stamp affair, the order still needs to be approved by a court, Morgan-Kurtz told Pittsburgh City Paper in an interview. But based on Morgan-Kurtz’s past experiences in class actions, they're "85%, 90% certain" it will go through, though they are not sure when.
In addition to introducing counseling, the order would require the jail to create private therapy spaces and hire six full-time licensed therapists within six months of implementing the settlement.
"For the first time, the ACJ is now agreeing to provide actual therapeutic counseling to people with mental health diagnoses, which is huge in a population that has such a high percentage of people with mental health diagnoses," Morgan-Kurtz says.
Morgan-Kurtz says other big-ticket items in the 38-page settlement include increasing the frequency of staff training on the jail's use-of-force policy and emphasizing de-escalation tactics to avoid using force as a first response in mental crisis episodes.
If implemented, the jail's compliance with the consent order would be reviewed by an outside, mutually agreed-upon monitor who would compile several annual public reports on the jail's compliance with each of the order's action items.
Jesse Geleynse, the public information officer for the Allegheny County Jail, told City Pap in an email, “Since the settlement hasn’t been finalized, it wouldn’t be appropriate for us to comment."
The 2020 suit, which also alleged the jail often resorts to use-of-force tactics such as irritant spray when dealing with people with psychiatric disabilities, sits atop a pile of lawsuits lambasting the facility for its treatment of incarcerated people.
Late last year, the Allegheny County Jail paid out a lawsuit with three women with psychiatric disabilities who alleged they were brutally assaulted by a staff member while held at the Allegheny County Jail and in 2021, a woman with multiple psychiatric disorders claimed she was tased three times at the jail following a suicide attempt.
“For a lot of people who go to the Allegheny County jail with a mental health or severe mental health issue, that can almost be a death sentence,” says Tanisha Long, a community organizer for the Abolitionist Law Center.
Geleynse said the jail declines to comment on Long’s statement.
Morgan-Kurtz says they're optimistic but not "cotton-candy optimistic" that the jail will be able to comply with all the items laid in the order. They acknowledge that the sweeping changes rely heavily on one thing: staffing.
A 2022 staffing audit found that over half of the jail's budgeted healthcare positions still needed to be filled. Advocates and lawyers say the vacant infrastructure contributes to a dearth in resource distribution.
Though the consent order creates new provisions for increasing and expanding jail staff, Morgan-Kurtz is realistic. They say that until the staffing shortages at the Allegheny County Jail are resolved, actual policy change could crawl. Still, they're hopeful the jail will be able to push through the order's significant items, like counseling, with its current resources.
"I believe that the jail administration will — and the county will — work to comply with everything to the best of their ability,” Morgan-Kurtz says.
A consent order brings the Allegheny County Jail close to wide-reaching mental healthcare changes
