Allegheny County Jail under fire for contracts seeking weapons and militaristic training

Allegheny County administrators have approved two no-bid contracts totaling more than $400,000 to provide militaristic training, weaponry and other equipment for the jail’s emergency response team.

The contracts, recommended by Warden Orlando Harper, come at the same time that the administration is seeking public bids for “rethinking the Allegheny County Jail facility,” claiming that it is “committed to reducing reliance on incarceration” and to “better meet the needs of people who are incarcerated.”

Members of the Jail Oversight Board and local advocacy groups on Thursday criticized the July 27 contracts and the services to be provided, saying that they undermine a referendum passed in the spring in which voters overwhelmingly voted to end the use of solitary confinement — except in limited circumstances — as well as the use of restraint chairs, chemical agents and leg shackles.

“This is a work-around to the intent of the residents of Allegheny County who voted to ban solitary confinement and less lethal force at the Allegheny County Jail,” said Bethany Hallam, a member of county council and the Jail Oversight Board. “The warden and his administration went around the will of the voters and said ‘we’ll find something else you didn’t think of. We’re going to find another way to do it.’”

She added: “And that makes me angry.”

Hallam said it appears through the contracts that the administration is trying to fully militarize the jail “when they already have the worst use of force statistics in the state.”

According to statistics from the state Department of Corrections, the Allegheny County Jail outpaced all other Pennsylvania jails in 2019 with 720 use-of-force incidents.

A message left with a county spokeswoman Thursday afternoon was not returned.

The two contracts at issue include one with Lightfield Less Lethal Research, valued at $95,000, and another, valued at $347,770 with C-SAU, or Corrections Special Applications Unit.

CSAU bills itself on its website as the “nation’s only full service, High-Risk Corrections Special Operations Mitigation Unit.”

It touts its ability to “understand and mitigate inmate insurrection and emergencies.

“Since the 1990s, after a series of significant prison riots that took the lives of corrections professionals, a challenge was made to create new and different approaches to handling inmate riots,” the company says online. “CSAU was formed in response to this ‘call for action,’ and we set out to change the culture of the failing, traditional corrections emergency response team practices and tactics. We value life, and we are committed to the safety and security of both officer and inmate alike, and therefore utilize the best innovations in modern technology, tactics, and techniques.”

The CSAU contract runs through June 30, 2023, and provides equipment for 16 “operators,” including vest protection, gloves, face protection, uniforms, lights, helmet covers, mini pry bars and breaching and thermal imaging kits, as well as weapon accessory and weapon optic kits.

It also provides “high risk corrections special operations & mitigation program and services. Mitigation program that addresses violent mentally ill inmates to responding to HIIC and LIIC incidents.”

A message left with CSAU was not immediately returned Thursday afternoon.

The Lightfield contract provides “less lethal ammunition that is specifically designed for use inside a facility and at close range.”

The contract with Lightfield says that the company’s “star projectile,” has a larger diameter and flexible composition which allows for “a safer deposition of kinetic energy. The overall design of the Star greatly reduces the likelihood of penetration, broken bones or deep internal injury.”

Under Allegheny County rules, whenever a facility requests a no-bid, single-source contract, they must provide justification for it.

In the request for Lightfield, signed by Harper, he wrote: “with the passing of Chapter 205 Allegheny County Jail Article 30 and 31, [the referendum], the ACJ has had to identify tools for use on special response team that are non-chemical ammunition that is traditionally used in correctional facilities. This product relies on velocity of delivery system rather than mass of the projectile with bean bags. This is the preferred product so measured delivery response to be used under the ACJ new special response unit that is being developed and trained as a direct response to Chapter 205.”

The justification notes that the less lethal ammunition and CSAU programs are being used in York County.

However, according to media reports there, they have been subject to controversy.

In a recent story by the York Daily Record, CSAU came under fire for using prisoners at York County Prison in some of its promotional videos.

Bret Grote, the legal director of the Abolitionist Law Center who represents multiple plaintiffs in lawsuits pending against the jail, including one involving excessive use of force and solitary confinement against a mentally ill woman who attempted suicide there four times, called CSAU a “mercenary goon squad. “

“The contract shows that Warden Harper is committed to undermining the spirit of the recently passed referendum. The people of Allegheny County spoke clearly and by a large majority: they want change at the ACJ, no solitary, no more brutality. That the county executive tolerates this is an insult to all who live in the county.”

Grote said that Lightfield is exposing itself substantial liability by selling weapons to a jail known for leading the state for excessive use of force.

“This is textbook negligence, and the legal fees and damages awards they could face for injuries sustained by victims of Allegheny County Jail could easily surpass the value of the contract,” he said.

During Thursday’s Jail Oversight Board monthly meeting, Hallam asked Harper to explain the purpose of the contracts.

“We did enter into a contract to help us comply with the referendum,” he answered. “I will not talk about this company in this forum.”

He suggested that the discussion be moved to the board’s executive session, saying that the contracts are “to help us de-escalate situations and comply with the referendum. That’s all I can talk about.”

Hallam responded, “You’re de-escalating with weapons? I’m confused by that. To the naked eye, it seems like it’s the exact opposite of that.”

County Controller Chelsa Wagner, who also sits on the board, said she shared Hallam’s concerns.

“I can’t see anything about de-escalation there.”

During an interview, Hallam said, “Shotguns with bean bags are not de-escalation.

She noted during the meeting that the Jail Oversight Board is statutorily responsible for protecting the health and well-being of those people who are incarcerated, and yet, its members never were informed of these contracts.

“Why did the board not have any say or even a heads-up that this is even happening?” Hallam said in an interview. “It is bizarre and hidden from the public and hidden from the Jail Oversight Board.”

Hallam said the contracts are “a complete bypass of the democratic process.”

Brad Korinski, who often sits on the oversight board as a representative of the controller’s office, said it was clear from the referendum that the voters wanted a “less violent jail.”

After reviewing CSAU’s website, he said that the company shows “an appalling lack of judgment,” and that the services they offer don’t see to be appropriate for any correctional facility, and certainly not the Allegheny County Jail, where the vast majority of those incarcerated have not been convicted of a crime.

“Hopefully, the county will retreat from what is a very bad decision,” Korinski said. “I think people will be outraged.”