DiSalle joins prison board
Judge John DiSalle, who presided over the bulk of criminal court cases among members of the current Washington County bench, has joined the board that oversees the jail.
Prison board Chairman Larry Maggi, a former state trooper and sheriff who also chairs the three-member county commission, welcomed DiSalle on Wednesday as the designee of Washington County President Judge Katherine B. Emery.
The prison board has been without a member of the judiciary since former president judge Debbie O’Dell Seneca resigned in 2008, citing lawsuits former inmates filed against the jail.
If a president judge does not personally serve on the county prison board, he or she can name a representative from the bench, but O’Dell Seneca chose not to do that.
Emery, after a salary board reorganization last month, said there were duties that she planned to delegate.
Before Wednesday’s meeting in the Courthouse Square office building, DiSalle said when the state Supreme Court in November assigned Allegheny County Senior Judge Joseph James to handle administrative matters in Washington County Court, James suggested that the court have a representative on the prison board. O’Dell Seneca retired from the bench effective Jan. 5.
DiSalle began making what will be a weekly trip to the jail to handle inmates’ parole hearings, which eliminates sheriff’s deputies having to transport prisoners to and from the courthouse. Streamlining during the initial session allowed 14 cases to be processed in about half the time as was usual.
The jail, at the end of January, housed 373 prisoners, 306 males and 67 females, but the census at the facility had grown to 437 last week, according to jail administrators.
The prison board is scheduled to convene at 11:30 a.m. March 18, in the jail conference room, but the group has the option of meeting March 4 at Courthouse Square.
Members of the board, along with the judge and commissioners, are county Controller Michael Namie, District Attorney Gene Vittone and Sheriff Samuel Romano.