Allegheny County Jail corrections officers contemplate no-confidence vote against warden

The union representing corrections officers at Allegheny County Jail has authorized a no-confidence vote against Warden Orlando Harper.

Brian Englert, the president of the union, said following Wednesday’s Jail Oversight Board meeting that they had already collected 150 signatures.

Still, Englert said he’s not sure every officer will vote in favor.

“They’re terrified of retaliation,” he said.

A petition on Change.org that says it was posted by the union, had collected 160 signatures by Wednesday evening.

In the letter to county administrators, it outlined problems with morale, safety, staffing and communications.

Amie Downs, a spokeswoman for County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, said in response to Englert’s comments, “The administration continues to have full confidence in Warden Harper and the leadership team at the county jail.”

During recent monthly board meetings, Englert has been critical of the jail and county administration, including at Wednesday’s meeting at the Allegheny County Courthouse.

The issue of jail staffing was raised repeatedly, and County Council President Pat Catena, sitting on the board, asked Harper if he could say how many vacancies there are.

Harper said he didn’t have the numbers in front of him and that he would not guess.

Englert told Catena, however, that there were at least 50 vacancies among corrections officers; he said that the jail is dangerously understaffed.

As an example, he said that one officer, as of March 1, had worked 82 hours in six days because of forced overtime, leading to anxiety, sleep deprivation and trouble focusing.

“This is just one of many of my officers that walk in every day,” he said. “We run this jail every day, and these are the side effects of our overtime. Don’t take this as labor-management grievances. This is beyond labor management grievances.”

Englert said that medical and mental health staffing levels are also inadequate. During 13 shifts from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. during the month of February, he said, there was either no medical or no mental health — or both — staffing in the intake department.

Englert told the board that the county manager shut down the idea of retention or recruitment bonuses to improve staffing.

“It doesn’t seem like there’s a plan in recruiting officers,” Englert said. “I’ve asked them to take down the ‘thank you’ sign out front and replace it with a ‘help wanted’ sign, and no answer on that, either.”

Downs said that the county does offer bonuses for nursing and medical staff at the jail.

In his report to the board, Chief Deputy Warden Jason Beasom said that 15 candidates for the corrections officer academy completed their physical agility assessment over the last week and will now move into the psychological testing assessment. Once they pass that, he said, they will start in the academy in early April.

Those 15 potential candidates came from a pool of 106 applications collected between Nov. 1 and Feb. 1, Beasom said.