Editorial: Warden's retirement is opportunity to improve performance

It is not surprising that, when coming to the end of a tenure, people tend to focus on the positives. Unless someone is getting fired, you look to the accomplishments more than the defeats.

It is like an obituary. It seems only fitting to say goodbye with a bit of optimism rather than rubbing salt in old wounds.

And so it is not surprising that as Warden Orlando Harper announces his September retirement after 11 years at the helm of the Allegheny County Jail and more than 35 years in corrections, he does so with a news release that spotlights the high points.

The bullet points highlight reaccreditation by the American Correctional Association and the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections in 2018, and the fact that only three Pennsylvania county jails have ACA accreditation. There’s attention to a program to help reintegrate people leaving jail into jobs, parenting and education, and a Discharge and Release Center to work on the practicals of leaving jail like clothing, transportation and even Narcan.

There is a program to reduce suicides, a pilot program to use tablets for things like learning programs and virtual visitation. There is even a section of the jail devoted to juvenile offenders and their needs.

But as the county will now need a new warden, this isn’t a time to gloss over problems. While a 50-page report in March verified that there had been no suicides at the jail since April 2020, there were still 27 deaths between 2017 and 2022. More happened after the report was released.

James Washington, 42, died in May after experiencing medical distress in the jail’s intake area. Douglas Bonomo, 59, was arrested for retail theft, evading arrest and disorderly conduct in January. He was placed in the jail’s mental health unit. He was found unresponsive July 23 and pronounced dead by paramedics.

It is entirely possible for all of these deaths to be the accidents or natural causes the National Commission on Correctional Health Care report found — though that report also pointed to seven suicides and three undetermined or pending deaths.

But that still puts the Allegheny County Jail at a much higher rate of inmate death than the national average of 154 per 100,000. That means that despite Harper’s touted successes, the jail has a lot of work to do. Leadership needs to be more transparent about what happens inside its walls.

It also has to be more compliant. In 2020, county residents voted to restrict solitary confinement. Months later, the practice was still being broadly used with little detail provided in records.

As county leaders, including the next executive who will take over after Rich Fitzgerald leaves office at the end of 2023, move forward with a replacement, they should take the opportunity not to rest on Harper’s touted laurels but find a way to aim higher.