Allegheny County Jail
An illustration of a person in a red uniform with a spit hood covering their face and head. They are strapped into a gray chair by their shoulders and ankles. The background is black with dark blue abstract clouds.

‘It always escalated to the chair’: Allegheny County Jail used the restraint chair more than any other county jail in PA.

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Update (3/6/2021): At the March 4 Jail Oversight Board meeting, Warden Orlando Harper reported to the board about restraint chair use. It was a deviation from what he typically shares at these meetings in response to the board asking for more information on how the jail uses the device following the original PublicSource report below. He said the jail used the restraint chair 18 times in February. He promised that, at the April board meeting, he would provide the March count and include the number of times a person with a mental health condition is placed in the chair. Harper also agreed to show board members the restraint chair forms that are completed each time the chair is used. Jail leadership also provided the board the healthcare queues the board requested following a PublicSource investigation about medical treatment at the facility.