Mar 21, 2020 3 min read

Washington County jail Warden Edward Strawn confirmed shortly before noon Friday that the facility is in the process of releasing some alternative sentenced and those charged with non-violent offenses to electronic home monitoring.

He did not immediately provide any statistics.

Weeks ago, amid growing concerns about the novel coronavirus, jail staff began screening incoming inmates and recording their body temperatures.

The warden also closed the facility to in-person visits as of 8 p.m. March 13, just hours after the first positive test for COVID-19 was reported as impacting Washington County. Free-of-charge video chats have been substituted by an Ohio-based jail commissary vendor.

According to the most recent report on the Washington County Correctional Facility population, at the end of February it housed 281 males and 70 females, including both sentenced and unsentenced prisoners.

Among the prisoners were 29 permitted to be released to report to jobs, while three were serving sentences on weekends.

At Wednesday morning’s meeting of the Washington County prison board, two days after President Judge Katherine B. Emery issued her initial order limiting access to the courthouse, Strawn reported, “Since the courts went into emergency mode, I’ve contacted (law enforcement) and asked, ‘Please, don’t bring in the jaywalkers.'”

Quizzed by Commission Chairman Diana Irey Vaughan, who holds the same position on the prison board, about whether the National Guard should be brought in if the ranks of corrections staff should dwindle due to illness, Strawn replied, “We have emergency plans. Other facilities are willing to help us.”

Several hours later, the state Supreme Court weighed in on what it considered essential and nonessential services during a period of social distancing so as not to spread the novel coronavirus, and, Strawn wrote in an email that the circumstances “have changed.”

Washington County Court Administrator Patrick Grimm on Thursday said as many matters as possible regarding criminal defendants and those detained in juvenile facilities would be handled via closed-circuit video conference, in an attempt to minimize close contact between inmates and sheriff’s deputies who accompany prisoners as they are transported.

An incarcerated inmate, however, has the right to request a personal appearance before a judge, Grimm said.

Allegheny County announced Thursday in a joint statement from court administration, the public defender and the district attorney that they were processing releases for 189 inmates.

The listed capacity of the Allegheny County jail is 2,965 inmates.

No confirmed or presumptive cases of the new coronavirus have been linked to Greene County, but its jail website carries a prominent temporary emergency order suspending visits with inmates until further notice.

Those who are arriving at the facility, including staff, new prisoners and those who are escorting them are all subject to COVID-19 screening. Any person who does not pass the check will be denied entrance, according to the website posting by Warden John Kingston.