Pittsburgh journalist sues Allegheny County over jail 'gag order' policies

A Pittsburgh journalist sued Allegheny County in federal court Thursday, claiming a county jail “gag order” violates jail staff’s First Amendment free-speech rights, as well as the press-freedom rights of journalists covering jail issues.

The “gag order,” which actually is a combination of multiple county Bureau of Corrections policies, dictates that all jail communication with reporters must go through the warden or a designee, according to the lawsuit. Under the policy, any jail employee wanting to comment must obtain the warden’s personal approval, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit was filed late Thursday afternoon in conjunction with the Reporters’ Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School, court records show.

The suit does not seek specific restitution beyond attorney’s fees.

“This isn’t a lawsuit about a monetary demand, this is about a public policy change,” said Harrisburg-based attorney Paula Knudsen Burke of the reporters’ committee, who helped file the suit. “We want the court to determine that these guidelines are unconstitutional.”

Jail officials disclosed the “gag order” policies in March 2022 to plaintiff Brittany Hailer, director of the Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, in response to a public records request to the county, the lawsuit said.

“People at the jail call me, reporting really heavy stuff, and they want to communicate to the press — but they can’t because they’re afraid of losing their jobs,” said Hailer, 33, of Pittsburgh’s North Hills, who has taught journalism at the University of Pittsburgh since 2018.

Hailer started covering local jail issues for the Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism about three years ago, the lawsuit said.

Critics of the jail say its inmate death rate is higher than other prisons its size. A March 2023 report commissioned by the jail found “no significant trends or common factors that would show a particular weakness or gap in operations” that led to 27 inmate deaths at the jail over the past five years.

County officials likely will not be served with papers about the lawsuit until Friday, Burke said.

County spokeswoman Amie Downs said the county doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation.

The new lawsuit is part of a larger legal battle between Hailer and press-rights supporters and Allegheny County officials.

A state court ruled July 11 that Allegheny County must release a medical examiner’s full autopsy report to journalists or members of the public when they request it, reversing an earlier court decision. An attorney for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, at the time, called the decision “a great win for public access.”

In a 6-1 decision, the state Commonwealth Court ordered Allegheny County to hand over to Hailer autopsy records for Daniel A. Pastorek, a 63-year-old inmate who officials said died from heart disease in the county jail on Thanksgiving Day 2020.

Hailer had filed a public records request to get autopsy records a month after Pastorek’s death, court records show. She said she wanted to know if jail conditions contributed to Pastorek’s death.

Nineteen inmates have died at Allegheny County Jail since January 2020, giving the jail one of the highest death rates per capita in the United States, according to Allegheny County Councilwoman Bethany Hallam, a member of the Jail Oversight Board.

The 30-day window for county officials to appeal the matter to the state Supreme Court has expired.

Burke, the attorney who helped file Hailer’s suit this week, said the case is particularly timely because Allegheny County will get a new county executive in 2024.

County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, a Democrat, is term-limited and has served nearly 12 years in the position.

Burke also said a verdict on the case could impact government use of public information officers, or PIOs, outside of Allegheny County.

“This is definitely something the journalism community will be watching,” she said.