Letter to the editor: Counseling needed at Allegheny County Jail

The National Commission on Correctional Health Care mandates that individual counseling be provided to residents at a county jail. This last year, there were eight therapists in our jail’s budget to provide individual counseling, but only one was hired, and recently.

Many residents in our jail are in a state of crisis. They have lost their housing and their source of income and are disconnected from their families. A new stigma has been attached with being in jail. Many residents are in an escalated fear of being victimized in jail. Many have a history of trauma that has been untreated.

Ask any therapist, and he or she will tell you that many people are the most willing to seek change when they are in a state of crisis.

There are many modalities of individual treatment that can be successfully provided in a county jail: cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, and Seeking Safety for individuals with trauma and drug and alcohol histories. Such therapies can reduce recidivism.

The opportunity for a resident to work with a therapist could be a gateway to change and growth for that person both in jail and in the community. It is wrong to deny the person that opportunity because the county at this point is not able to hire more therapists. Providing individual therapy at the jail is humane and the right way to treat many individuals involved in our criminal justice system.

John Kenstowicz

Morningside