Innamorato says hospital police will shackle jail inmates to thwart escape attempts

An agreement has been hammered out to address safety concerns raised by Allegheny County corrections officers transporting incarcerated people for medical appointments.

Under its terms, police officers on hospitals’ security staffs will be responsible for applying leg shackles to people being taken to appointments from the Allegheny County Jail — even though jail guards would still be responsible for supervising them.

The plan, announced Thursday by County Executive Sara Innamorato at a Jail Oversight Board meeting, prompted backlash from the jail’s corrections officer union and members of the board.

Innamorato called it an “immediate solution” reached in an attempt to remedy what has been an ongoing fight over the proposed use of leg shackles by jail officers.

Following a referendum in 2021, Allegheny County voters overwhelmingly agreed to outlaw the use of leg restraints by jail officers as part of a wider ban on solitary confinement and the use of a device called a restraint chair.

The ban was prompted by years of wide-ranging claims of abuse by jail officers against people incarcerated there.

However, in recent months, officers at the jail have asked to be permitted to use leg shackles while making hospital runs with incarcerated people.

Union President Brian Englert said shackles are necessary to prevent escapes.

There have been least 14 escape attempts from medical facilities in the last 16 months, according to Engler.

The union gathered enough signatures to put the issue before a vote of Allegheny County Council.

Last month a bill that would allow jail officers to apply shackles only during medical transports was referred to council’s public safety committee.

Englert urged council to vote on the measure, but Innamorato said on Thursday that if such a bill comes before her, she will veto it.

“If that current bill advances through County Council, and it reaches my desk, I will veto it because it is redundant,” she said.

Using hospital police officers to apply leg shackles, Innamorato said, balances safety concerns.

“We believe that the solution is compliant with the referendum that was voted on overwhelmingly in favor of by Allegheny County residents, while also respecting the safety for the incarcerated individual receiving care, the COs and the broader public that may be present at the hospital.”

Hallam unhappy

But Jail Oversight Board member and Allegheny County Councilwoman Bethany Hallam questioned whether the county is still studying the feasibility of turning over the responsibility of hospital transports to the county sheriff, as had been previously discussed.

“Are those still conversations that are happening? Is that still something that’s being explored? Or you just saying this is what we’re doing and that’s over?” Hallam asked.

Innamorato said such a proposition could be considered in the future, but it would likely be costly and require the hiring of additional deputies.

The announcement Thursday, she continued, was “an immediate solution.”

But Hallam called it a “work around to the referendum.”

Innamorato disagreed.

“One of the major concerns that I’ve heard expressed by this body with putting restraints in the hands of COs, it could potentially be a slippery slope where, ‘If we’re using it here, can’t we use it here? Back using it into the facility? This avoids any of that conversation,” Innamorato said.

“But it doesn’t, because they’re still being given shackled people,” Hallam responded. “The only thing they’re not doing is putting the shackles on themselves.”

In a series of messages on X, Englert called it “another Hail Mary attempt (by Innamorato) to put politics over public safety.”

“Who’s making the decision to put them in shackles? Them or us?” Englert said. Either way, he continued, “This still violates the referendum because the inmates are still in our custody.”