Staff at the Allegheny County Jail could soon be exempt from a law that requires most county employees to live within county limits. Allegheny County Council will consider lifting the requirements, as laid out in an ordinance introduced at a meeting on Tuesday by Democratic council member at-large Bethany Hallam and council member Liv Bennett.
According to the county's administrative code, anyone who accepts a job with Allegheny County must become a resident within one year. Health care workers employed at the jail are among the positions that are not subject to the county’s residency requirements, but this ordinance would expand the rule to cover anyone “performing their primary work function(s) at the Allegheny County Jail.”
The ordinance was modeled on a similar bill passed last year that allowed 911 telecommunications officers and shift commanders to live outside the county. In both cases, county officials were aiming to bolster applications and employee retention numbers for positions that counties across the country have had trouble filling.
Supporters hope that excluding jail employees from residency requirements will encourage more people to apply for corrections officer positions. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, county jail staff and community members have been calling attention to “severe staffing shortages” at the facility, particularly among corrections officers and health care-related positions.
The jail has been repeatedly criticized for failing to maintain a full staff. Increasing the number of people able to work at the jail would help ease the burden on existing staff and be beneficial for people incarcerated, said Hallam, who is also a member of the jail’s oversight board.
“Every week it seems there is a different person who's getting forced into overtime, a different officer who's quitting because they can't stand being forced to work overtime all the time, or they want to move outside of Allegheny County and they feel like they're stuck living here,” she said. “We want the best and the brightest. We want to have a full staff to make sure that that facility is safe for all the people who are in it. And the only way to do it is to expand our hiring pool to the county surrounding Allegheny County.”
Hallam noted that the jail currently has “dozens” of vacant corrections officer and health care positions.
The problem isn’t unique to Allegheny County Jail. Jails and prisons across the country have reported staffing shortages in recent years.
Allegheny County Prison Employees Independent Union president Brian Englert told council the jail is short about 50 corrections officers. Between January and July 2022, he said the officers that still work at the jail logged an estimated 90,000 hours of overtime.
“This resolution would bring in qualified professionals already trained and working in correctional facilities outside the county into our facility. It would alleviate — I hope — immediately or quickly the staffing crisis we’re facing,” Englert said.
“If we could get 20 more officers from other county jails and they can live where they live, this immediately changes things for us,” he said.
In an email, a spokesperson for Allegheny County Jail said, "The jail remains appropriately staffed to continue normal operations. The safety and security of the staff and incarcerated population are the primary concern, and the jail would never compromise staff safety."
Last fall, County Controller Corey O'Connor, who also serves on the Jail Oversight Board, announced a staffing audit at the jail for the first time in more than 10 years. The audit could be complete as soon as this spring.
The bill was referred to council’s committee on public safety, which is chaired by ordinance sponsor Liv Bennett. Hallam said she is confident the committee will take up the bill quickly and hopes it could appear before the full council at the next meeting in two weeks.
The full council must vote on the ordinance before it becomes law.
