Allegheny County Jail: A Norwegian’s Nightmare

“If you pee your pants on a cold winter day, it will feel very warm, and then it will freeze like

hell.” An old Norwegian proverb that perfectly describes the US prison system’s process of trying to

patch problems with temporary solutions.

Every 1 out of 100 citizens in the US are incarcerated. Now think about any organization you’re

in, school, choir, anything, and think about just how many people you know that will end up exploited by

the prison system. At my university alone, 400 people are statistically doomed to end up in that same

position. Originally here in the US, prisons were created following the American revolution and abolition

of slavery to deter citizens from committing further crimes and also allow those housed in the prisons

time to sit and reflect on what they had done. Although they seem to be an amped-up version of time-out

for adults, prisons have historically and continually exploited the people inside and all they are as

humans.

Take a look at our Allegheny County Jail here in Pittsburgh! The first time I came to the beautiful

city of bridges and pierogies, I took a bus tour of all the major sites and buildings. While passing by the

Duquesne campus, which happens to be right next to the jail, I was told a fact that shook me to my core:

when they were rebuilt in 1995, windows were requested and built to be smaller and without visible bars

to disguise it to not look like a prison to the nearby students. It made sense to me at the time, but looking

back, I understand that they want prisoners to have little to no access to the outside world and also

prohibit outsiders from viewing the inhumane practices used within the walls. How can we feel like the

citizens within those walls are being treated with humanity when the system doesn’t even want us to

know they exist in the first place?

One human basic life necessity, food, has often been pushed to the side as an afterthought. In

2021 alone, the Allegheny County Jail was cited 42 times for health code violations, which has been the

most in recent history adding up to 162 since 2014. This is including but is not limited to rats, roaches,

and rodents in and around the food, feces all around the working and eating areas, and other “high-risk
pest management issues.” An inmate who worked in the kitchen said he found roaches behind the

equipment daily and was continually instructed to cook contaminated food for the over 1,000 inmates

who needed to eat. Instead of fixing the structural problems that allow animals to get in or investing in

proper animal repellent adjustments, the county continues to pay the fines and move on, leaving their

inmates vulnerable to infection and all sorts of rodent-carried diseases.

Back in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 outbreak, we can take a look into their lackluster

efforts of stopping the spread of disease and sickness. Starting out, they already didn’t staff enough

workers and were overworking both inmates and officers in various locations throughout the jail. That by

itself was a pandemic issue throughout the world during that time of panic and airborne disease, and the

Allegheny County Jail alone could not have prevented it, but there’s much they could have helped with.

First off, leadership had prisoners bunked and kept at least two in a room, preventing any allowance of

social distancing or physical isolation for sickness prevention. Even when the jail released 600 people and

the jail’s population dropped by 20%, Warden Orlando Harper left an entire floor unoccupied and

continued to leave the prisoners in close proximity to one another. This led to outbreaks among inmates

and the officers, as well as the entire kitchen crew staffed by the inmates, which subsequently decreased

their access to the already limited and contaminated food. Leadership, along with Warden Harper, had

many chances to resolve these problems but failed to supply basic health safety to those within the jail.

Among the class action lawsuit regarding COVID-19 and in light of all the jail’s issues, former

inmates, families, civil rights organizations and other people connected to the jails have filed lawsuits

against Allegheny County. Many relate to the health, well-being, and treatment of inmates during their

sentences.

Late in December of 2020, three women filed against the county for various physical attacks they

had endured by Allegheny County Jail Sergeant John Raible during their time there. All three women had

various mental and physical disabilities that were worsened or triggered by the assaults. The sergeant

sprayed them with a sort of pepper spray and pellets, restrained them, and beat them. The first woman was

pregnant at the time and was put into the hospital after being slammed into the ground. The other two
women were locked in a “strip cage” and pummeled with the various weapons. Attacks like these are

never in no way justified, but the assaults were only said to be for mundane reasoning. Raible attacked at

least one of them because of possession of a pen. The officers, guards, and leaders who run the jails and

prisons have all the power, and often that translates into this physical power they hold against inmates to

force them into submission and quiet obedience. The Allegheny County Jail is also reported to have

almost double the state average of force used. In many cases, this treatment of inmates often leads to more

violence and hostility, not to mention completely destroying their physical and mental well-being.

Another inmate, Seitz, filed a lawsuit against the jail for five pregnant women, including herself,

with the help of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) of Pennsylvania. They were put in isolation

without proper conditions to take care of themselves, like nutrition fit for a pregnant person, access to

showers, or the ability to exercise. Once again, these women were being punished for victimless

disobedience: having too many pairs of shoes and books within their cells. In all the stories that former

inmates shared, they were punished for trying to live a somewhat normal life and add small joys into the

nightmare that seems to be the Allegheny County Jail.

The most disturbing part of all in the Allegheny County Jail, and honestly just all US prisons in

general, is the consistent and dehumanizing use of solitary confinement. It was experimented with in the

late 1800s as a way to give prisoners alone time to pray, read the bible, and hopefully have time to reflect

and change themselves, but continued to develop into things like “the hole.” That is a horrible way to live.

Inmates are sometimes forced to sleep completely naked in a concrete room with only a door and a hole in

the floor. Guards shove minimal food through a hole in the door, but otherwise leave inmates by

themselves for days, if not months or even years at a time. Imagine being treated like you don’t even exist

in this world by being put in a room alone for that long.

Not surprisingly, inmates put into solitary confinement for any amount of time often develop

various mental and physical illnesses that affect them for the rest of their lives behind bars or otherwise.

People put into solitary confinement are 24% more likely to die in the first year of their release, and 78%

more likely to die from suicide. They are “also 127% more likely to die of an opioid overdose in the first
two weeks after release.” A study was done in 2020 calculated that about 80,000 people a day are put in

some form of solitary confinement, whether it’s actually called that or disguised as “segregated housing

units'' or “restrictive housing.”

The cons heavily outweigh the pros, which are basically none, and yet this method is still

commonly used in one way or another. In December 2019, Allegheny County was the first in the country

to officially ban solitary confinement, meaning inmates could only be held in a cell for up to 20 hours a

day. Despite this, jails continue to hold inmates in segregation from others for days and even months. As

of January 2022, 294 instances of isolation of inmates were reported. Warden Harper cited “safety” as

justification but failed to explain the specific reasonings.

In one instance, inmate James Byrd was held in solitary confinement for over three consecutive

years and continues to be confined to a cell for 23 hours or more a day, which is well above the legal limit

in the county. Byrd explains how “over time you experience a social death” and are no longer able to

recognize yourself as you once were. He says that from that point on, solitary confinement has lived

within him and pushed out any dignity and sanity he had left.

Human rights, as defined by the United Nations, are “rights inherent to all human beings,

regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include

the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right

to work, and education, and many more. Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination.”

Delving into the horrors that make up the Allegheny County Jail, it is blatant that Warden Harper and

other authorities within the jail don’t have human rights as a top priority.
 This is especially repulsive given that back in April of 2011, Pittsburgh was declared to be the

fifth human rights city in the US. The United Nations, founded in 1945, created a human rights resolution

in the form of the “Human Rights City” project. This was meant to bring a further responsibility of

protecting all human rights to cities around the world and have specific examples of what a fair and just

city should look like. Pittsburgh, in accepting this challenge, is to continually “secure, protect, and

promote human rights for all people.” Article 26 of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights

states “everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free…Technical and professional education

shall be made generally available,” specifically combatting the United States’ lack of proper education for

prisoners.

On the flip side of the world in Norway, their prison system in particular upholds these human

rights policies. Although their cities are not a part of the same declared human rights city project as

Pittsburgh, Norway’s government officials took it upon themselves to adopt much of the UN’s Universal

Declaration of Human Rights into their own treaties and constitution in 1999. In regards to prisons, this

includes the complete ban on the death penalty, which the United States has not yet been able to agree on,

along with the CERD (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination) and the

CAT (Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment).

If we take a further look at Norway, we can understand how these human rights promises have

played out through the prisons. Their history can speak for itself, holding a record-low incarceration rate

of only 0.06% of the population. Back in 1998, the Norwegian government enacted the Norwegian

Education Act, guaranteeing equal education opportunities for all citizens, including those in prison.

Within the confines of the prison walls, inmates enroll in classes to get the equivalent of their GED.

Leaders put inmates through classes for not only basic education like reading, writing, and life skills, but

also for applicable life skills they can use for a job when they get out. This includes advanced education

and technical trade skills that allow for a stable life beyond incarceration.

A system that incorporates educational programs as such reduces the likelihood of people

reverting to the same or worse behavior that landed them in prison in the first place, which is also known
as recidivism. In the US, 44% of prisoners return within the first year of release and 75% return within

five. Compared to Norway’s 20%, these statistics are beyond saddening.

In trying to understand our lack of education and rehabilitation efforts in our prison system, I

called on my neighbor who has experience in the field for insight. Mrs. Jessica Tivel started off

volunteering in college with an organization called Offender Aid and Restoration, a DC-based

organization that works towards a fair criminal justice system through restorative justice and educational

programs. This organization landed her a spot teaching a computer literacy class to adult female inmates.

She then went on to work with juvenile offenders, complete her graduate education in criminal justice,

interview sexually violent predators in Maine for a sexual offender treatment program, and finally run a

prisoner reentry program for paroled veterans.

To her, education is one of the most important factors in rehabilitating prisoners and lowering the

recidivism rate. While she volunteered to teach computer literacy classes in a DC prison, Mrs.Tivel was

shocked to find that she only had two students out of the ten that could even read and write. How are

these women and other people within the system supposed to defend themselves and fight for a chance at

a normal life when they can’t even print their own names? She went on to explain that “prisoner reentry

begins the day you get locked up,” and it goes beyond simply treating them like humans with all their

rights, which doesn’t even happen in our current system. She learned that we have to help change their

mindset and raise their confidence in life to turn their circumstances around, which starts with any kind of

education. “There’s no bad education you can get.”

Along with their extensive education efforts, Norway works with a different training system to

reduce an environment of violence. Prison governor Are Hoidal of one of Norway’s maximum security

prisons calls it “dynamic security,” a form of security that is based on the idea of communication and

unity between the prisoners and guards. They all participate in activities, talk, and eat together, aiming to

create a safe environment in which everyone can grow and become better people. For two to three years,

officers are trained in the science of human behavior, ethics, and human rights, and are taught only to use

force as the last resort. Dynamic security aims towards more peaceful methods of guarding and hopes to
move away from the “masculine, macho culture” and “revenge” of the previous system. Now, it’s

completely focused on rehabilitation, which helped drop their recidivism rate from 70% in the 1990s, like

the US, to the 20% they sit at now. They were down to 25% within the first five years of the

implementation of the new dynamic security policies.

Clearly, looking at a system like Norway’s, we can understand that all types of education and the

use of peaceful officer training can propel inmates into a better life beyond the prisons. Amend, an

organization aimed at utilizing those Norwegian tactics here in the US, has proven that our system is

capable of real and lasting change. They “launched a culture-change program” that paired US correctional

officers with their Norwegian counterparts to help assist with this new system of training. This allowed

400 officers from varying states in the US to adopt this peaceful kind of prison paroling. They also

reduced the use of solitary confinement all across North Dakota’s prisons, giving those in isolation a

chance to succeed in life. Both prisoners and officers in these facilities reported more satisfaction with

their lives and fewer mental health issues. Prisons went from a place that broke down everyone who set

foot in them to an environment that can cultivate new mindsets and changes everyone involved can be

proud of.

Researching and understanding our criminal justice system here in the US is downright

depressing at times, especially knowing the problems that live right in our home city. Many of us in the

lines of Pittsburgh are shielded from these monstrosities because of our lack of connection to the jail and

those inside them, but human rights violations are human rights violations no matter who they happen to.

We should be fighting for them all. I know that I am not able to enact much change as a single person, but

spreading awareness and informing ourselves is the first step in the right direction toward further criminal

justice reform.

If the US could just catch up to countries like Norway, with their humanity and rehabilitation

efforts, then maybe we’ll have a chance at a more peaceful country where people are allowed to make

mistakes and learn and grow from them. When we pee our pants in the cold, let us not sit in the warmth

and soon after freezing to deadly levels, but change our pants and go to the bathroom.
Author’s Note

First learning about our prison system here in the US opened my eyes to just how much damage

we put on already disadvantaged people in this country. Although at the time I didn’t understand the

origins or full range of negative effects of it, I knew that it was my responsibility as a citizen and student

to understand the system and how it hurts those within it. It’s also my part to spread that information and

awareness through writings such as this one. Although I can find a purpose in writings like these for

myself, I often find myself cursing myself and the world for my lack of power in changing what I see as

wrong.

Writing this piece, I found it difficult to add my voice while still respecting the stories and pain I

was portraying. I hope I reached the right balance between sharing the facts and adding little parts of me

and my opinion to make the piece more readable. Something that I’ve also struggled with in the past has

been the transitions from paragraph to paragraph and idea to idea. I think I did well in connecting all my

ideas and working nicely through all the ideas presented. The layout of the essay also works with all the

information and allows the reader to easily follow along and understand everything.

The one overarching question that remains is one I’m not sure many people can truly and

truthfully answer: Why can’t the US criminal justice system implement these systems to reduce the use of

prisons themselves? It is a difficult one that can only be answered with an extensive explanation of the

origins and need for power, but even then, it remains open and unanswered.

Previous to the entire class evaluation of my piece, I didn’t feel too strongly about it. I felt like I

just had a ton of articles full of information that I threw together on a page and hoped it sounded

structured and relevant. Going into the evaluation, I was extremely nervous about the comments and

criticism, but I was purely met with compliments and helpful feedback that has grown my piece into what

it is now. For me, it has always been difficult to go back into a full work and break it up and down to fit

what people want to hear, which I still need to work on, but I believe that I was able to incorporate the

comments well.
 I hope that the lessons that have sunk into me through this class can be exemplified through this

paper. Writing for Change, Professor Kramer, my talented peers, and the tons of successful authors with

tons of varying styles of writing showed me a new path of creation I had never thought possible before.

You can write the same story with the same ideas and outcome, but write it an infinite amount of ways:

creative, poem, freestyle, five paragraph, narrative, non-fiction, academic…you name it; it’s all about

figuring out who you are as a writer and how best to portray the information at hand.

I still have a long way to go, but this incorporation of voice and fact in my writing has pushed me

to new levels I never even thought of. Particularly, listening to everyone’s favorite writing in the last class

of the semester widened my horizons even more. I was inspired to say the least. I could hear the passion

in each type of writing that connected to the person holding the voice. That is what I will strive for:

writing pieces that reflect my inner monologue and present stories in a way that brings out that type of

emotion in me and my audience.

CERD and U.N. Human Rights Framework

Furthermore, reading through the CERD (Committee on the Elimination of Racial

Discrimination) report, it becomes clear that practically every form of discrimination and obstacle to

citizens constantly shackles the currently and previously incarcerated. First off, the black population in

prisons is almost three times that of the actual population. The racial divide is only the beginning of the

inequity within the prisons. Prisons were originally created after the demolition of slavery to legally

enslave free black people. Since they didn’t have any resources or help to survive on their own, they were

forced to steal and break the law to simply obtain the basic life necessities: food, water, and shelter. This

landed them right into the prison system created to be a legal form of slavery. When this is the racist and

biased basis on which our current prison system was created, there’s no saying the harm it can cause to

these already discriminated groups of people.

 Prisoners of all demographics are also affected by discrimination listed in the CERD. Everything

from voting rights to education and rights to health, food, and legal aid. Those incarcerated in this country

are punished for the purpose of punishment instead of given a second chance to turn around the one life

they were given. Once someone makes one mistake, they pay for it until the grave, and they are stripped

of the basic human rights every American citizen is promised.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights created by the UN in 1948 outlines exactly what

human rights entail in every aspect of their being. Article 5 explicitly states “no one shall be subjected to

torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Understanding the inhumane

conditions prisoners of the Allegheny County Jail and facilities around the United States go through, we

can see that Pittsburgh and much of the criminal justice system disregard this framework and only

defends the sections that allow them to continue their cycles of exploitation and abuse. Some of the other

articles touch on the complete “prohibit[ion of slavery or servitude] in all their forms” (Article 4) and

fairness in all aspects of life, government, and criminal justice regardless of race and other demographical

differences; all aspects of discrimination that heavily affect people in the criminal justice system.
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