90.5 WESA FM: “Allegheny County Council on Wednesday rejected an effort to overturn a ban on leg shackles at the county jail.

In August, Allegheny County Jail corrections officers and their supporters initiated a little-known process outlined in the county charter called an agenda initiative, which requires council vote on a citizen-written ordinance if organizers can collect 500 signatures from county voters in support of the issue.

They asked council to review a bill that would reinstate the use of leg shackles — a tactic banned by a voter-approved referendum passed in 2021 — that limited the use of solitary confinement and barred restraint chairs, leg shackles, and chemical agents like pepper spray. Some corrections officers hoped to amend the rule to allow leg shackles to be used when incarcerated people leave the jail for medical care.

At Wednesday’s meeting, council shot down the proposal in a 12-2 vote. Democrats Jack Betkowski and DeWitt Walton were the lone “yes” votes; fellow Democrat Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis was absent….

Advocates who worked on the 2021 referendum, like Tanisha Long, celebrated the decision.

‘I’m very, very happy that we did the best thing for our incarcerated neighbors,’ Long said, commenting that restraints can impede medical care. ‘It’s not just about the safety of the public, it’s about the safety of them, too.'”

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