The Allegheny County Jail Oversight Board voted Thursday to confirm Trevor Wingard, a former deputy secretary with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, to be the county jail’s next warden.
“The status quo is not acceptable to me. I don't think it's acceptable to this board. … And you're not [the status quo],” oversight board member Rob Perkins told Wingard before the vote.
Wingard spent 30 years working in Pennsylvania state prisons, first as a corrections officer and later in various managerial and supervisory positions. He was an interim warden at Allegheny County Jail for a period in 2011, before officials hired former warden Orlando Harper for the job. Wingard will be the first person to hold the permanent position since Harper retired in September 2023.
County Executive Sara Innamorato nominated Wingard to the position Wednesday after an eight-month search process. State law requires the oversight board to certify her pick.
The board voted 7-1 to confirm Wingard. Board member Muhammad Ali Nasir, who goes by his emcee name, MAN-E, was the lone “no” vote.
Shortly before voting, MAN-E said that although Wingard seems to be “pretty progressive” for a warden and could bring about positive change, “I don't think there's any good way for anyone to function as a part of an oppressive system.”
“I want to remind my comrades that there's no such thing as a good warden and there's no such thing as a good jail,” he said.
County Council member Bethany Hallam abstained; she was a member of the warden search committee and said the Innamorato administration told her she could not participate in both that process and the confirmation vote.
Public commenters and some board members, including Hallam and MAN-E, criticized the hiring process. They said members of the public, JOB and search committee should have been more involved in selecting warden candidates.
Prior to the vote, the board questioned Wingard for more than an hour about how he plans to address some of the jails’ ongoing problems, including a staff shortage and concerns about living conditions and inadequate healthcare. Wingard pledged to reduce the jail population, introduce new programs, and revamp reentry strategies.
He agreed to look into what advocates say is an overuse of lockdowns and solitary confinement justified by vague rationales, and said he aims to reduce uses of force in the facility.
“If discipline is anything other than corrective in nature, it's inappropriate,” Wingard said.
Wingard’s first day will be Jan. 13.
