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.

Adult Sized Crime

Last week, District Attorney Steven Zappalla announced he would be seeking to charge a 15 year-old accused of attacking his teacher as an adult, explaining that “the interests of the community are best served if the matter is transferred to the adult division for trial.” Multiple news outlets describe the boy as over six feet tall and 200 pounds. This kind of physical description is a well-known racist dog-whistle. They also describe him as having a “mental disability” and as having been moved between multiple foster homes. They may as well have been describing my brother.

A position statement from ALC in opposition to the blatant intimidation of an elected official – “Make no mistake about it, this is about defending the democratic will of the people that elected Magistrate Pappas on a platform of decarceration and protecting the advances of a human rights movement to keep people out of cages and in their homes. That is what we are defending. We perceive the same state agencies that oppose and intimidate elected members of the judiciary in Allegheny County as the same forces that oppose progressive prosecutors and judges, from Philly to SF.”

A position statement from ALC on the recently announced City Council ordinance concerning Stop-And-Frisks – “The current ordinance requires only that police officers memorialize the reasons that they believe constitute ‘reasonable suspicion’ that a person has committed a crime prior to temporarily detaining them...[The ordinance] will do little to reduce [stop-and-frisks] – a practice that is unequivocally performed in a racially-discriminatory manner, perpetrates significant harm on our communities, and does nothing to improve public safety.”

An anonymous Court Watch volunteer reports on the Allegheny County Jail’s deeply troubling new contracts – “[Joseph Garcia] is a charlatan who specializes in teaching prison guards to shoot incarcerated people with 12-gauge shotguns at close range. And none of that stopped Allegheny County, Pennsylvania from giving Mr. Garcia almost $350,000 to pay a visit to our county jail.”

Disconnected Connections: Reflections on Remote Court Watching

Dheeksha Senthur

Court Watch volunteer Dheeksha Senthur shares her experiences observing court remotely during the winter of 2020 through the summer of 2021 – “The attorneys went back and forth before Judge Lazzara denied the motion to sever but assured that there would be precautions in place and reminders to the jury so prejudice wouldn’t hold. As the proceedings continued, the room was filled only with the voices of the judge, defense, and commonwealth attorneys. The man in the orange jumpsuit seemed like a silent spectator.“

On May 18, 2021, Allegheny County became the first county in this nation’s history to abolish solitary confinement by referendum. 

Jaclyn Kurin

However, as momentous a victory as this is, there are exceptions when solitary confinement can be used at ACJ. In this brief summary of the results of the referendum, ALC attorney Jaclyn Kurin lays out under what conditions incarcerated people may still be held in solitary as well as how we must continue to hold the ACJ accountable to the people’s will.

What happened in McKeesport? – Violence Work, Occupation, and Apartheid in Allegheny County

Suhail Gharaibeh

Suhail Gharaibeh author of Making Freedom: Abolition Geography & The Movement to Defund Pittsburgh Police (2020) shares out on the December 20th paramilitary police occupation of McKeesport, apartheid in Allegheny County, abolitionist futures and more – “How can we transform harm? That is the question we keep coming back to…we are animated by a hunger for healing, not retribution. Justice means nothing if it does not transform the original conditions from which harm emerged.”

“Surely Some Revelation is at Hand”: Allegheny County Jail’s Book Ban and the Road to Abolition

Courtney E. Colligan

Courtney E Colligan reminds us that ACJ’s book ban is just another example of apartheid punishment in Allegheny County. With limited access to tablets, unreliable wifi, and 90-minute time limits, incarcerated community members are forced to read books off of ACJ’s official catalog: a list of over 200 books written solely by white people.

The Violent Evolution of Police and Imperialist Militarized Tactics on Community Members

Kaity Baril

“Police” are evolved slave catchers. They are the militarized occupying forces of our communities that reinforce racial capitalism. They must must be abolished.