Allegheny County Jail warden announces plan to retire

Warden Orlando Harper plans to retire after nearly 11 years of service as warden of the Allegheny County Jail and director of the Bureau of Corrections, County Executive Rich Fitzgerald announced Tuesday.

“I have been honored to serve in this role for over a decade and am announcing my retirement with mixed feelings,” Harper said in a statement. “When I first accepted this position in 2012, my intent was to remain here through the end of this administration. While that’s just a few months away, circumstances have changed with my family and, because of that, I’ve moved that end date up.”

The Alliance for Police Accountability (APA) Coalition, which is a grassroots group that aims to hold police and government leaders accountable, is embracing the sudden announcement.

“Finally,” said Kyna James, APA Coalition organizer. “We rather wish that he would have been fired, honestly.”

The group has been calling for Harper’s resignation for years.

“We’ve been packing the jail oversight board every month,” said APA Coalition Founder/President Brandi Fisher. “People’s families have been coming down there who’ve been dying at the jail demanding for change, demanding for new leadership, so he knew his time was up.”

The warden’s retirement comes at a time of increased scrutiny from the public and some members of the jail oversight board. They say the jail’s low staffing and inadequate conditions have led to deaths under Harper’s watch.

“He is responsible for that,” Fisher said. “What justice do those families get when he just gets to resign and collect money every month for doing nothing.”

According to a recent review commissioned by the county, there have been 27 inmate deaths between January 2017 and October 2022. That same report, however, found those deaths were not tied to a particular weakness or gap in operations.

The jail’s spokesperson, Jesse Geleynse, recently sent a statement saying they’ve increased surveillance and taken other measures to prevent deaths.

“The safety and security of our incarcerated population is the jail’s top priority, and all deaths are a tragedy,” Geleynse said in the statement. “The jail takes each one very seriously and is continuing to work with our partners to increase surveillance and take other measures to address preventable deaths. Through our contracts with the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, we have received recommendations on steps we can take to reduce suicides and prevent deaths, where possible. We have made those improvements, resulting in better outcomes. The recent death is the first death in our housing units since September 2022 because of the hard work that we’ve been doing to get people out of the facility.”

Meantime, the county highlighted improvements under Harper’s tenure, including:

Maintaining accreditation with the American Correctional Association and Pennsylvania Department of Corrections - one of three county jails in the state to be accredited; offering additional job training opportunities and GED classes; launching a pilot program in 2016 to connect people incarcerated with resources and tools, including virtual visitations, health care, or filing complaints; and creating a special pod for juvenile offenders.

“I have always preferred to let actions speak louder than words — sometimes to my detriment,” said Harper. “Regardless of the public narrative about the jail, I’ve seen first-hand the great work done here every day. This dedicated staff has saved and improved countless lives. I’m proud of the work that they’ve done, and the progress that we’ve made together, and thank them for their dedication and commitment to the people we serve each day.”

The APA Coalition, however, is questioning the warden’s timing of his retirement, saying they believe he buckled under public pressure.

“This is a result of years of advocacy, of years of fighting for the people in our jail,” said Fisher.

Channel 11 asked Geleynse about the timing and if the warden was under any pressure to leave early. The spokesperson said the warden is not doing interviews and doesn’t have a comment.

Harper’s last day will be Sept. 29.

With this announcement, the Fitzgerald administration will be working with President Judge Kim Berkeley Clark to identify a search firm. That firm will be tasked with putting together a profile on the county and jail and will also be responsible for providing opportunities for the community to weigh in on the type of person that should be selected and the priorities that the person should have for the facility and its operations.

The last search took over a year, and so the work being done now is intended to give the next county executive a head start in the search process, according to Fitzgerald.

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