The Allegheny County Jail is the only jail in Pennsylvania in which officers cannot use leg restraints to secure individuals from jail on a visit to the hospital because of a 2022 referendum. Sheriffs and all other jurisdictions use leg restraints when accompanying individuals from the jail into the community.

There have been two serious incidents of attempted escapes at an area hospital this year, one in which an individual temporarily escaped asking to use the urinal and another with an individual slipping handcuffs off and running away.

Both individuals had to be chased in the hospital and tackled to the hospital floor and secured, hospital staff and patients experiencing the event. These events cause a high degree of stress and even anger in officers who know they are the only jail who cannot use leg shackles. Why risk putting patients, family and hospital staff in harm’s way?

On the other side of the ledger, there is a concern of an individual suffering the stigma of being seen in public with leg shackles. For Black people, this stigma is felt at a deeper level because of the history of slavery.

Joel Lashey, an expert in hospital security and crisis intervention, recommends a compromise in which the individual is escorted in a wheelchair, leg restraints covered by a blanket, giving the officers the security to know the individual is secure and the individual is being protected from the harmful effects of social stigma.

John Kenstowicz

Morningside

The writer is an activist working to improve living and working conditions at the Allegheny County Jail.

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