Use of inmate funds at Allegheny County Jail questioned

The Allegheny County Jail Oversight Board has formed a subcommittee to examine how funds generated by the inmate commissary are used to support jail programs and facilities.

The Inmate Welfare Fund is intended to benefit the education and welfare of inmates, but recent requests for disbursements from the fund have raised questions from some board members about whether the funds are being used properly.

Revenue in the fund is generated by money made from inmate’s purchases in the commissary and does not include taxpayer money. Expenditures from the fund are approved by the Jail Oversight Board.

The board postponed a vote in January to use $120,096 from the Inmate Welfare Fund to pay for a two-year contract with LexisNexis, which provides a digital law library for the jail. Inmates can currently access the library — which includes a database of case law and other legal resources — by using kiosks in housing units. The proposed contract would support access to those materials when the jail transitions to individual inmate tablets.

Board members questioned whether the Inmate Welfare Fund was the proper source to fund that program, given that Pennsylvania jails are required to provide access to legal resources, according to state law.

“That isn’t something that is for the health and welfare of the inmate,” said Brad Korinski, chief legal counsel with the Allegheny County Controller’s Office. “That is just something you’re going to incur by operating a jail, therefore it should be a part of the yearly budget and shouldn’t be something that is taken from the inmates and the costs that they incur for commissary items.”

Korinski attends jail oversight board meetings on behalf of Controller Chelsa Wagner, who sits on the board. He is part of the inmate welfare fund subcommittee. He said that since it is the inmates’ money, it should be spent on benefits like providing better food, accommodations, educational opportunities and other enriching activities.

Chief Deputy Warden Laura Williams rescinded the request to pay for the LexisNexis contract through the inmate welfare fund during Thursday’s jail oversight board meeting.

“Though this was a request that historically came from the inmate welfare fund, it will come from the operating budget this year,” Williams told the board.

Allegheny County Council at-large representative Bethany Hallam, D-Ross, joined the board as council’s representative for the first time Thursday.

Hallam said she would like to see the oversight board and County Council work on legislation to specify how the Inmate Welfare Fund can be used.

“It’s being used recklessly because there’s no legislation stopping it from doing that,” Hallam said.

Items like suicide prevention blankets or a law library are examples of purchases that should be included in the county budget under the jail’s regular operating expenses, not the Inmate Welfare Fund, she said.

“The inmate welfare fund should be used for uniforms that don’t make you itchy when you take them off, or better mattresses,” Hallam said.

In 2019, the jail purchased 5,050 suicide prevention blankets at a cost of $272,851.50 from the Inmate Welfare Fund, according to figures provided by Williams.

A December vote to use money from the Inmate Welfare Fund to pay for Narcan nasal spray kits to be provided to inmates as they are released from the jail raised similar questions. The $75,000 disbursement will cover 1,000 kits and will help to continue a critical program started in 2016 with grants and support from the Allegheny County Health Department.

The board in December also approved a $17,500 disbursement to buy bus tickets for people released from the jail, along with a roughly $200,000 disbursement to fund a life skills training program.

January inmate welfare fund expenditures included $23,768 to fund the family visitor’s center and $53,828 for a court-ordered domestic violence prevention program.

There was $2.7 million in the account as of the end of 2019, according to figures provided by the Allegheny County Controller’s Office.

The subcommittee to evaluate the inmate welfare fund has met once since the beginning of the year, said Judge Beth Lazzara, who sits on the subcommittee. Additional meetings have not yet been scheduled.

“We cannot do anything with the inmate welfare fund until we have a better idea among the people on the subcommittee of what has been paid traditionally, what we think needs to be paid, what is a right that needs to be paid by the county and what is more of a privilege, and those are things that we’re going to be working on,” Lazzara told the board.

The controller’s office will present a breakdown of inmate welfare fund spending at the next jail oversight board meeting, which is scheduled for 4 p.m. March 5 in the Gold Room of the Allegheny County Courthouse, Korinski said.