Sara Innamorato arrives for her first Allegheny County Jail Oversight Board meeting as county executive, on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2023, in the County Courthouse. Behind her is board member Judge Eileen Bigley, and to the right is Bethany Hallam, county councilor. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource)
Allegheny County Executive Innamorato ended her predecessor’s custom of sending a proxy to the oversight board, but she will have her hands full curing staffing and safety issues in the jail.
by Charlie Wolfson, PublicSource
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.”
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.