The apparent decision to not reinstate Allegheny County Jail Oversight Board member Terri Klein should be reconsidered (“Fitzgerald seeks to appoint former warden to Allegheny County Jail board,” March 4, TribLIVE). It feels like Klein not being reinstated is an act of retaliation for recent votes where she sensibly represented the wishes of the Allegheny County electorate.
Thanks to Klein and others, we were spared the debacle of having our tax dollars committed to C-SAU and trainer Joseph Garcia. Besides being an important move in protecting the human rights of inmates (many pre-trial and innocent), this vote undoubtedly spared the county from spending even more dollars on future lawsuits that a rogue entity like Garcia would invite.
County Executive Rich Fitzgerald has nominated William S. Stickman III, a former SCI Pittsburgh warden and ACJ interim superintendent, to replace Klein. This is asking county residents to accept the desire of Fitzgerald, Warden Orlando Harper, Sheriff Kevin Kraus and associates to allow the jail to be run as an unregulated house of horrors. Ongoing police and prosecutorial misconduct and lack of appropriate juvenile and mental health facilities in the county ensure that ACJ is not the proper place for many being held there.
County residents are relying on the board to see to the humane treatment of inmates. We do not consent to ACJ being allowed to be an island of barbarism.
Klein should be reinstated to the board or replaced with someone representing the public’s yearning for civility rather than the institution’s desire for a rubber stamp of its abuses.
Alan Lewandowski
Lawrenceville