In what one senior corrections officer is calling a “staffing crisis” at the Allegheny County Jail, urgent calls for more guards and medical personnel were directed at Warden Orlando Harper during Thursday’s Jail Oversight Board meeting.
Brian Englert, president of the union representing corrections officers, blamed employee turnover on increasingly long overtime hours, a lack of retention bonuses and poor morale as the county scrambles to hire new classes of recruits.
“They’re getting crushed,” said Mr. Englert of his corrections guards, claiming 28 new recruits each worked over 70 hours of overtime in March.
“I just lost an officer, he resigned,” Mr. Englert said. “He said, ‘I’m not getting enough time with my fiancee. It’s causing issues in my relationship. I’m forced every day.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Harper remained adamant that only medical staff were responding to inmates, pushing back on claims that corrections officers were picking up on nursing duties.
According to Mr. Englert, there are at least 50 vacancies for correctional officers at the Allegheny County Jail, which employs around 378 corrections officers for an inmate population that was 1,487 as of March.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, the Allegheny County Jail saw 64 corrections officers resign.
With at least 50 corrections officers taking vacation during Easter week this month, Mr. Englert said staff were predicting a “dangerous” situation, where 25 guards working the morning shift will be absent at the same time that six to eight other officers are pulled from their pods to complete training.
Addressing staffing solutions, Chief Deputy Warden Jason Beasom said that a six-person cadet class was set to graduate this month and would be available to work in the jail on April 17.
Mr. Beasom added that a class of 11 cadets were entering the nine-week training course on April 25, and the county continued to list positions online and in radio and digital ads.
In an effort to speed up the recruitment process, Mr. Beasom said the testing process for correctional officers would be done digitally instead of in-person.
Earlier in the evening, Mr. Englert was quick to offer more creative solutions, suggesting the Allegheny County Jail recruit through the metropolitan police’s network.
“I need officers in this building,” Mr. Englert said, addressing the warden’s team. “I need you to get me officers. I need you to make the schedule better.”
Mr. Englert and some citizens during public comment were equally as concerned about vacancies on the medical staff, noting shortages in licensed practical nurses, medical assistants, mental health specialists, regular nurses, and substance abuse councilors.
According to John Kenstowicz of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, the Allegheny County Jail had 53 vacancies for these positions, up from 37 vacancies in August of 2019.
In response to the Jail Oversight Board about whether inmates were getting their medications on time, Mr. Harper said inmates do not miss their medication -— although he acknowledged that some medications had been delivered late.
Mr. Harper also admitted the Allegheny County Jail was losing out on recruitment efforts to other hospital systems in the region.
“Everybody is trying to recruit LPNs and RNs to be employed at their facility,” Mr. Harper said. “We are in the medical mecca of the world, where Pittsburgh has many hospitals that’re paying $15,000, $10,000 bonuses, and, of course, health care staff is going to these entities.”
Mr. Beasom mentioned that the jail was offering a referral bonus for medical positions, although did not specify how much. The jail is also working to source LPNs and RNs alongside the Allegheny Health Network, he added.
Those shortages were putting further strain on corrections officers, according to Mr. Englert, as members of his team have had to step in during medical emergencies.
“Whenever we do have an emergency and my officers have to respond, we’re performing life-saving measures,” Mr. Englert said. “Right after that, they go right back to their post. I mean that’s a traumatic incident, and they’re going right back to their post to work.”
To get a better idea of why corrections officers and medical staff were resigning from the Allegheny County Jail, board member and Allegheny County Councilwoman Bethany Hallam suggested the warden provide them with the contact information for outgoing employees so that they could conduct exit interviews.
Mr. Harper mentioned that the jail already offers to conduct exit interviews, but that participation was minimal.
Jesse Bunch: jbunch@post-gazette.com
First Published: April 8, 2022, 2:29 a.m.
Updated: April 8, 2022, 3:18 p.m.
