Month: April 2020

Reposted from IGD

Since this piece was written, coronavirus has spread rapidly in ACJ. As of April 28, 19 tests have returned positive out a total of 37. Even these numbers, horrifying as they are, reflect only a fraction of the number of infected prisoners.

An analysis of Pittsburgh’s local jail amidst the coronavirus epidemic and a short report on ongoing abolitionist activity.

Over the past many weeks, community members in Pittsburgh have been organizing to demand the release of people who are in prisons, detention centers and jails in Pittsburgh and around the country. Between phone-zaps and demonstrations, we won’t stop until every cage is empty.

Autonomous groups have been organizing protests outside of the jail and the courthouse:

This coming week, organizers in Pittsburgh will also be holding a virtual abolitionist vigil and grief ritual for people all around the country. To find more information about joining an at-home vigil please follow @abolitionistvigil on Instagram.

Continue reading “Pittsburgh Demands Abolition During Coronavirus (and Forever)”

Yesterday afternoon anarchists and others held a car-based noise demo at the county courthouse to demand that prisoners at risk of coronavirus infection be released from Allegheny County Jail. A couple of dozen vehicles circled the building for an hour, honking their horns and hanging signs out their windows, while a handful of protesters on foot (fully masked!) took pictures and chanted through bullhorns. A phone zap was held the same day, which reportedly filled up the voicemail accounts of the judges being targeted.

The police showed up late and didn’t do anything besides block other traffic from  entering the demo. No arrests were made or tickets given.

Continue reading “Car Demo and Phone Zap Held for Prisoners in ACJ”

From IGD

Pittsburgh’s Bukit Bail Fund is calling for a phone zap marathon in solidarity with prisoners in Allegheny County Jail, who are at at high risk of infection with coronavirus. Targets for the first three days are included below, with more to come soon. Give them no peace until our friends are safe!

More than 1,600 people are currently held in the Allegheny County Jail (ACJ) in crowded, unsanitary conditions. Hundreds of staff enter and leave the facility each day. As of April 9th, more than 80% of those at ACJ are unconvicted; instead, 43% are held on alleged violations of probation, many of them technical violations or based on non-violent charges; 22% of them are held pretrial only, with their presumption of innocence intact; countless numbers are held simply because they cannot afford cash bail. Only 113 people in ACJ are serving a sentence, and nearly all of those sentences are for minor charges.

Continue reading “Phone Zap for Prisoners at Allegheny County Jail”

UPDATE 3, 04/19/2020: ACJ’s updated statistics show only five new prisoners being tested. This indicates that the inmates who had contact with the infected CO are not being tested, since there must have been far more than five of them. In addition, we have learned that Deputy Warden Laura Williams is the final arbiter of which inmates get tested for coronavirus, despite the fact that she has no medical training.

UPDATE 2: Contrary to our previous reporting, prisoners in ACJ can buy postage stamps, but the process to do so is byzantine. A family member must access the prisoner’s commissary account to buy the stamps, which are then delivered to the prisoner’s cell. We do not know how long this takes, but suspect the wait is lengthy.

UPDATE 1: Pittsburgh Current has published an article featuring a current prisoner at ACJ that confirms much of our information, and further exposes the media coverup of the Covid-19 outbreak in the jail. 60 prisoners recently wrote and signed a letter to the media, which never appeared in any outlet. In addition a second jail employee, this one a CO who had contact with prisoners, has tested positive. ACJ has updated their statistics to reflect the new data, but has not made any further announcement. No other outlets than the Current have reported on the new case.

Continue reading “Conditions Inside ACJ Deteriorating Rapidly”