County Council
Proposal would soften a 2021 ban on shackling incarcerated individuals during medical care.
Medical emergencies at the Allegheny County Jail are climbing, and the jail is short on staff. On Sept. 8, three county council members proposed letting sheriff's deputies use leg shackles during medical transport and care. That would soften a 2021 ban on shackling people held at the jail. For now, the proposal sits with council's public safety committee.
Written by Amy Whipple
Medical emergencies at the county jail are climbing, and so is the question of who should guard and transport the people having them.
Three Allegheny County Council members introduced an ordinance during the Sept. 8 meeting that seeks to amend a 2021 prohibition on the use of leg shackles for people incarcerated at the Allegheny County Jail. The proposal would allow for shackling by the sheriff’s deputies during medical transport and care.
In June, the Jail Oversight Board recommended that the sheriff’s department take over medical transportation. According to the proposed ordinance, transporting prisoners currently takes 10-12 corrections officers per day, which costs approximately $1.12 million in 2025.
The amendment comes on the heels of Sheriff Kevin Kraus pulling deputies from guarding incarcerated people during hospital stays after the jail updated a policy to require family notification as soon as someone is sent for emergency care.
Without the sheriff’s deputies, the jail must now pay for officers to be medical guards as well.
The move coincides with increased hospital runs and an ongoing jail staffing shortage.
Interim Warden Connie Clark said during the Sept. 1 Jail Oversight Board meeting that the medical emergencies are in part due to medetomidine — a veterinary tranquilizer — infiltrating the drug supply. Its life-threatening withdrawal can require a week or more in intensive care.
Deputy Warden Holly Martin added that the population’s overall health has declined. Last month, intake staff turned away 39 people, she said, “the highest we’ve ever seen for medical refusals at the door.”
“All we care about is the incarcerated people,” said President Judge Susan Evashavik DiLucente. “Well, when the people who are there to guard them are exhausted from working 80 hours a week every week, week after week after week after week, and are out on hospital runs for 24 hours at a time — how do we expect anybody to work in those conditions?”
Council referred the ordinance to the public safety committee.
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