A man transferred from Allegheny County Jail died Monday at UPMC Mercy Hospital.
In a press release, jail officials said James Washington of Bridgeville, a 42-year-old Black man, was brought into the jail on Friday, May 5. He was administered two drug screens, testing positive for multiple substances, including the powerful opioid fentanyl then placed on a “detox protocol.”
Washington was later found unresponsive in the jail’s intake department Sunday morning. Staff gave Washington four doses of Narcan before he was transferred to the hospital where — according to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s office — he was pronounced dead just after 5 p.m. the next day.
Since 2020, 18 men have died after being incarcerated at the Allegheny County Jail.
At a press conference Tuesday, advocates for incarcerated people, including Tanisha Long, said they’re demanding greater transparency and accountability from County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and Warden Orlando Harper.
“The jail has set the expectation that when our loved ones go in, they cannot have a reasonable expectation to come out healthy [and] whole with their mental health intact, with their limbs, their body parts, or even their life still belonging to them,” Long said. “There are people who could make changes — significant changes — to that jail that can ensure that our people come out alive and whole. And that is not currently happening.”
In Tuesday’s statement, jail officials did not lay out the circumstances leading to Washington’s arrest and incarceration. They did note, however, that on “Monday morning, the jail received an order from the Court releasing” Washington from custody, though the reason for his release was not immediately provided.
From January 2016 through January 2020, 19% of people who died of accidental overdoses in Allegheny County had been booked in the county jail at some point in the year before their death, according to the Allegheny County Health Department.
Both the Allegheny County Police Department’s Internal Affairs unit and jail administration will conduct a review of Washington’s death.
