Allegheny County Council approved County Executive Rich Fitzgerald’s $1.05 billion operating budget on Tuesday after making a few changes – including the addition of a first-of-its-kind provision to pay inmates who take on jobs inside the Allegheny County Jail.
The budget marks a 3.4% spending increase from 2023, and it’s the second time the county’s operating costs surpassed $1 billion. Fitzgerald said most of the increase is due to rising personnel costs. Even so, it’s the 12th consecutive budget with no increase in the county’s property tax.
The final version of the budget passed 10-5, mostly with little debate. But some council members criticized allocations to pay incarcerated workers at the Allegheny County Jail, and to overhaul the facility’s color-coded uniforms.
Republican Sam DeMarco said that although he supported most of the budget, he had “significant concerns” about a $1 million proposal to pay incarcerated workers. He argued incarcerated workers are volunteers who receive non-monetary compensation, like extra time out of their cells, additional hygiene items or meals.
“We pay the jail to house and feed these people, and now we're asking the taxpayers to take and pay voluntary workers,” DeMarco said. “It's not a job. It's not forced. And it's not slavery or servitude.”
Democrat DeWitt Walton, a longtime employee of the United Steelworkers, said the county should pay incarcerated workers, but criticized a $500,000 line-item to replace red uniforms worn by adult inmates with neutral-colored jumpsuits.
“I am concerned by inmates doing work in the jail without compensation,” he said, noting that most people held in the jail are awaiting trial and have not been convicted of committing a crime. “As a trade unionist, as a humanist, I think there should be some compensation for the work that they are performing now.”
But he scoffed at the notion that red jumpsuits can spur strong emotional and physiological responses, and joined DeMarco and others who said the county should prioritize spending on needs outside the jail.
“If you get mad at somebody or it impacts my psyche because of the color uniforms, don't put yourself in a position to get locked up,” he said. “I think we are doing some things and engaging in behaviors that are not in the best interest of the residents of Allegheny County.”
Republican Suzanne Filiaggi and Democrats Nick Futules and Bob Macey joined DeMarco and Walton in voting “no” on the budget.
Supporters of those allocations did not respond during the meeting, confident that they had the votes to pass the measure. But afterwards the proposals’ chief supporter, councilor Bethany Hallam, said paying for labor should be a universal principle.
"Pittsburgh is a union town,” she said. “We should be supporting workers in all forms, including those who are currently operating under slave labor conditions in the Allegheny County Jail.”
Hallam said Allegheny County would be the first county in the United States to pay those inside its jail, though prisoners inside state penitentiaries in Pennsylvania and elsewhere are paid.
“No labor can be voluntary under oppressive systems,” she said. “We are supposed to be helping folks be set up for success when they leave our jail.”
Hallam said those inside the jail would be paid up to $10 a day for their work, but predicted it would take the Jail Oversight Board a few months to establish the program. By state law, she said, those paid as inmates won’t receive the money until after their release, though dependents can receive much of the money earned before then.
“I almost cried when it passed,” she said. “This is something I have been promising to deliver for years.” As for the uniforms, she said they were part of an effort “to change the culture from the top down.”
Hallam’s plan to pay workers failed to gain majority support at a November Jail Oversight Board meeting after members said they wanted council to allocate the money before they voted. Board members also clashed over whether to update the jail uniforms. The board must now approve both programs, though its make-up is set to change when county executive-elect Sara Innamorato takes office early next year. .
Council also voted Tuesday to approve two additional jail-related ordinances. One will require revenues from phone calls, tablet usage, and commissary purchases at the jail to be sent to the Incarcerated Individual Welfare Fund, which is used to improve conditions for those incarcerated at the jail. The other will amend the county code to codify jail oversight board operations and allow the board to retain an independent solicitor: Hallam has argued that having its own legal advisor would assure the county complies with state open-meeting laws she has accused it of violating.
A separately approved $116.3 million capital budget will finance infrastructure and capital improvement projects, including 20 bridge repair and improvement projects, and a nearly $2 billion grants and special accounts budget lays out spending plans for money from state and federal sources.
Chris Potter contributed to this story.
