Editorial: Total testing for covid at Allegheny County Jail is worthy goal
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Jails check for a lot of things when processing someone who has been arrested.
Suspects are checked for weapons or other potentially dangerous items. They are checked for contraband such as drugs. They are photographed, fingerprinted, patted down and looked over.
During the course of a stay in jail, there can be spot checks, cell inspections and close observation of everything from visits to mail.
Everything about a jail is designed to be vigilant — and often invasive.
So why draw the line at a covid-19 test?
Allegheny County Councilwoman Bethany Hallam made a motion at a Thursday meeting of the county jail oversight board to do universal testing at the facility.
“We meet the guidelines for universal testing,” she said. “It only makes sense to extend to the full jail to get a snapshot in time as to where we are.”
The jail has done testing. Chief Deputy Warden Laura Williams reported 2,163 tests in the past year, 287 of which were positive. The facility houses approximately 1,500 people at any given time — 42 are positive, and 162 tests are pending. Positives were up in February.
Williams said that reflects what is happening in the area.
“Within the community, there have been spikes, and our facility has been no exception to those peaks and numbers,” she said.
But Allegheny County’s numbers actually are down. Countywide, February cases decreased 53% from January.
Warden Orlando Harper said universal testing would be difficult, requiring a lockdown of the entire jail.
The board agreed, voting down Hallam’s proposal, but Judge Beth A. Lazzara suggested having medical professionals weigh in before the next meeting.
Lazzara is right.
While jail personnel look at the issue from a perspective of control, and the board looks at it in terms of supervision if not politics, the virus isn’t a question of either one. It can’t be disciplined into submission, and it can’t be voted into a decline.
It is an issue that requires medical expertise, and the judge is right to call for that testimony. And depending on what that recommendation is, for the health of the inmates and the employees alike, testing could then be reconsidered.