Inmate dies at Allegheny County Jail after being found unresponsive
KDKA/CBS News, 07/24/23: “A man in the Allegheny County Jail since January who hadn’t been convicted and was waiting to be transferred to a treatment facility has died.
Officials said the 59-year-old inmate, whose name hasn’t been released, was found unresponsive by jail staff in his cell on Sunday.
Sunday’s death at the jail marks the 20th death in the last three years and the second in two months. Advocates say this is yet another travesty that could have been prevented.
Tanisha Long is the community organizer for the Abolitionist Law Center, which is a non-profit organization that defends and advocates for incarcerated people. She said the latest inmate death at the jail was absolutely preventable.
‘We’ve been warning the Jail Oversight Board, jail officials and Rich Fitzgerald that if they did not change their mental health procedures, if they did not get medical staff into that jail, that someone else was going to die,’ Long said.”