Members and friends of ALC Court Watch publish articles on racialized data trends, eye-witness stories, abolition, and other court and carceral-related happenings and controversies in Allegheny County.
Mental Health Court Harms Instead of Helps, Punishing Community Members with Disabilities
Using data from the Abolitionist Law Center’s Court Watch program, “You Send Yourselves to Jail” Coercive Diversion in Allegheny County Mental Health Court (2023) exposes the inner workings of a diversion court that harms rather than helps community members. The Mental Health Court (MHC) is a plea-dependent court that subjects people to most traditional carceral processes and leaves them with a permanent record. MHC revolves around the threat and reality of jail and directly criminalizes the behavioral health problems of its participants, punishing drug use, relapse, and what it perceives as aggression.
Probation, long believed to be a helpful tool for reforming the broken criminal legal system, is instead a driving force of mass incarceration. Probation in Allegheny County, a report released today from The Abolitionist Law Center, exposes a system beset with problems that disproportionately impact Black residents and zip codes with lower median incomes.
PRESS RELEASE: Man Shot by Pittsburgh Police Demands the Video Footage
This week marks six years that Todd Robinson has sat behind bars at the Allegheny County Jail, awaiting effective representation at trial. Back on April 24, 2017, Robinson was parked at the McDonald’s in Wilkinsburg, Pittsburgh when police approached his vehicle. When Robinson tried to drive away, a police officer shot him in the shoulder and the chest. The cops charged Robinson with two counts of assault on an officer, a charge he has vehemently denied since that night.
Why I Joined Court Watch
George Floyd’s murder is why I joined court watch. It’s not that simple, and the path was not direct, but his murder and the protests that followed were what finally broke through my white bubble. I live in a white bubble. I’m white. All my friends are white. All my colleagues are white.
PRESS RELEASE: Solitary Survivor Swept Up in Narcotics Raid Stands Trial
Just days after the Allegheny County Jail came under fire at the Jail Oversight Board meeting for its failure to adhere to the ban on solitary confinement, 30-year-old Tashon Burke stands trial for charges caught after the state released him straight from solitary confinement to the streets of McKeesport. Due to a weeks-long lockdown at Allegheny County Jail in 2022, Burke’s mental health has deteriorated, forcing him to endure the trauma of isolation all over again and heavily rely on psychotropic medication.