FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – July 23, 2021

Contact: William Lukas, ALC Director of Communications, wjlukas@alcenter.org

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PITTSBURGH – The Abolitionist Law Center (ALC) and client Kim Andrews have released a video of a 2019 attack on Andrews by Sergeant Alyssia Tucker that took place at Allegheny County Jail (ACJ) on May 31st of that year. The video was released exclusively to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for public viewing and has been sent to the United States Attorney for the Wester District of Pennsylvania for investigation. The surveillance footage was obtained during discovery as part of a 2019 emergency petition filed by ALC against ACJ to remove Andrews from solitary confinement. She was forced to spend more than 150 days between 2019 and 2020 in the jail’s “restrictive housing unit”.

Kim Andrews, a 22-year-old survivor of ACJ’s ongoing abuse and torture of community members, is calling for federal intervention at the jail. In a letter sent to United States Attorney Stephen Kaufman on Monday, ALC requested an investigation to not only hold Sgt. Tucker accountable for the attack, but also to investigate the widespread systemic practices of excessive force authorized by Jail Warden Orlando Harper.

The letter, available for viewing here, references a legal deposition of Warden Harper: when asked if staff may use force for “any violation of policy”, he responds, “Absolutely.” 

Last year, Warden Harper was named as a defendant in lawsuits against ACJ that allege constitutional violations for the jail’s failure to provide adequate mental health care to inmates and for brutal assaults on people living with psychiatric disabilities and serious mental illnesses. Under Harper, incarcerated community members are regularly attacked with blunt force, pepper spray, tasers, and placed in restraint chairs for hours without access to food, water, and medicine.

Responding to the video release, Andrews shares, “This is not just about me – it’s about everyone else. The jail cannot be trusted to reform itself. People need to know what’s really happening on the inside. Sharing this video is part of exposing the truth and growing the public outrage that is necessary to transform ACJ.”

In the surveillance footage, a handcuffed Andrews is shown returning from the hospital after her second suicide attempt during the 150 days Andrews was forced into solitary confinement at the jail in 2019-2020. While Andrews is escorted through intake to the elevator, Sgt. Tucker shoves Andrews from behind. The impact forces Andrews to fly forward and hit her head at the other end of the elevator and Sgt. Tucker immediately discharges her taser into Andrews’s back.

“That’s the worst feeling, when somebody has a weapon behind your back. That is torture.” says Andrews.

Following this assault, Andrews lays prone on the floor, showing no physical resistance. Sgt. Tucker and other officers then pounce on Andrews with Sgt. Tucker tazing her a second time. Andrews lost consciousness during the assault, eventually waking up strapped to a restraint chair.

In a February 2021 Public Source profile on the restraint chair, Andrews said that she has been forced into the restraint chair “at least half a dozen times between 2018 and 2020” at ACJ. Andrews’ experiences have also been highlighted in The Appeal. Last May, she detailed the first time she was placed in solitary confinement at age 18, “I was about to go to the hole because I wanted to see medical care. Because I said I couldn’t breathe, because I was having a panic attack. And I just couldn’t believe that.” Andrews was instrumental in giving voice to the 2020 solitary confinement ban referendum led by the Alliance for Police Accountability and has empowered other victims and survivors of abuse at ACJ to come forward and share their stories.

The release this video is made public just weeks after a community member living with psychiatric disaiblities named Martin Bucek was found dead inside the jail’s suicide watch pod. Andrews attended Bucek’s vigil at ACJ last Tuesday. The event highlighted survivor stories and the conditions of the jail, reminding attendees that ACJ has one of the highest suicide rates in the country – over 70 community members have committed suicide there since the year 2000. 

In 2019, the year of Andrews’ assault by Sgt. Tucker occurred, ACJ used the restraint chair 339 times (more than twice that of the county with the second highest number of instances), while ACJ correctional officers used tasers 146 times (a full 50% of all uses of tasers in Pennsylvania in 2019). Andrews lives with bipolar disorder and PTSD and has spoken out about correctional officers’ responses to those experiencing mental health crises in jail, “You are punished for asking for help. Punishment is not mental health care or rehabilitation.” Andrews attempted suicide six times while incarcerated at ACJ from 2019 to 2020.

Andrews hopes the release of the video will end the impunity of the jail administration, “They want you to be afraid and they want you to feel that fear, and that’s what I felt. There is a prevailing culture inside the jail that the people who ‘watch over you’ can simply commit crimes against inmates with no consequences.”

Community members can directly support Kim Andrews by donating to her CashApp: $pytkimmie.

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