Allegheny County Jail must address shortage of corrections officers, health care workers, audit says

An audit released Tuesday said Allegheny County Jail is short-staffed by more than 125 corrections officers, while more than half of the jail’s budgeted health care positions are unfilled.

Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor, D-Squirrel Hill, acknowledged in the audit that hiring has been a challenge across all employment sectors, which makes adequately staffing the jail “even more difficult.”

Allegheny County Rich Fitzgerald has said the region has 50,000 unfilled jobs across all employment sectors.

Still, O’Connor said the audit is a cause for action as the jail will soon see new leadership. Allegheny County Jail Warden Orlando Harper announced he will retire at the end of September.

“As the county transitions to a new administration and a new warden, it must devise new strategies to attract and retain staff for the jail,” O’Connor said.

The audit said the jail had 377 corrections officers, but 504 are needed to cover all shifts without overtime. Currently, 38% of corrections officers work overtime, according to the audit. Overtime accounted for more than a quarter of total pay to corrections officers in each of the past two years.

Health care has been an ongoing struggle at the jail, with the facility facing lawsuits over inadequate mental health services. The persistent health care staffing shortages has especially been evident when it comes to therapists.

At the end of 2022, all eight budgeted therapist positions at the jail were vacant, according to the audit.

The controller’s office recommended offering hiring incentives, implementing telehealth visits when applicable and improving communication between management and staff to decrease the staffing shortages.

In response to the audit, Harper said the jail is not alone in its hiring struggles, noting that Allegheny County is experiencing a decades-low unemployment rate of 3.3% and there are 40,000 unfilled job openings across all sectors in Allegheny County.

He said the corrections industry is facing high turnover rates among staff. He added that “the Allegheny County Jail has also experienced challenges in recruiting, hiring, and retaining staff” and that the pandemic has exacerbated those issues.

Harper pushed back on the notion that jail has not been making efforts to fix the staffing shortage. He said the jail has worked with a talent acquisition specialist, lifted residency requirements for jail employees and is offering employees parking reimbursements.

He said the jail also offered bonuses to jail nurses, but that didn’t fix the nurses’ workload issues. The jail also increased marketing campaigns and is hopeful that training changes will help recruitment efforts.