🇿🇦Independent Pittsburgh journalist (currently at The Post and Courier) and an avid reader of county contracts and docket sheets
Pittsburgh
Joined September 2022
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NORTH CHARLESTON - Orbited by a wide parking lot, scattered palmettos and a dozen other motels that look just the same, the mustard yellow Quality Inn on North Arco Lane is discreet in its ambiguity. It was here that Maco Jacome-Jacome peddled what he referred to as "meat."
Sex trafficking in North Charleston motels is an open secret. Here’s why they can’t be held to account trib.al/Jepg2tW
James Paul retweeted
As settlement negotiations continue, open records reveal a president judge wrote to Harrisburg to suggest a no-bid contract with a vendor “such as Adelphoi Village” to operate Shuman Juvenile Detention Center, one year before signing just such a contract.
pghindependent.com/post/as-a…
My first for the @postandcourier
An escaped pet monkey died in Walterboro. What does that say about S.C’s exotic pet laws? trib.al/Q9Cs0QX
Two days ago, I noticed that I could no longer download the raw data sets from the Allegheny County Jail Population Management Dashboard. I sent emails to the county. They got back to me to say they fixed it — but now I can’t access the data at all.
tableau.alleghenycounty.us/t…
Then I used the data in a @PGHCityPaper article exploring claims that the ACJ holds juvenile girls in solitary. Since 2016, there have been only 195 days in which more than a single girl has been in custody, meaning when girls go to jail, they’re by and large held in isolation.
I’ve used the raw data in a @PINJNews to show how the number of kids held at the ACJ increased as the national rate of kids in jails declined and after the ACJ implemented federal legislation aimed at removing kids from adult lockup.
A big set of mental healthcare policy changes is inches away from implementation at the ACJ, including provisions for counseling services for the first time. The proposed settlement now just needs court approval. @PGHCityPaper
pghcitypaper.com/news/a-cons…
James Paul retweeted
Woah!
.@JoshuaPVaughn and I have been invited to testify at a policy hearing on the public health crisis of death in custody by PA Senate Democratic Policy Committee Chair Katie Muth and Senator Amanda Cappelletti.
James Paul retweeted
Amachi Pittsburgh combats the symptoms of parental incarceration with a volunteer mentor program. Mentors and mentees say the relationships formed often last for years. Read the full story:
pinjnews.org/born-into-that-…
1/4🧵 Between 2018 and 2021, there were 25,335 children in Allegheny County who had a parent in lock-up. Parental incarceration imposes a wide array of heightened risks on children, ranging from learning disabilities to juvenile delinquency.
4/4🧵 For @PINJNews I wrote about Amachi Pittsburgh, a local nonprofit, that claims to have a 92% success rate in breaking intergenerational incarceration.
pinjnews.org/born-into-that-…
3/4🧵In a cycle called intergenerational incarceration, 30% of kids with an incarcerated parent become incarcerated themselves — a rate six times higher than kids without a parent in jail or prison, according to the National Institute of Justice.
2/4🧵 Kids with an incarcerated parent are three times more likely to face behavioral problems and depression than their peers and twice as likely to suffer from learning disabilities, ADHD and anxiety.
I'm 21, young enough to know that when teenagers have nothing going on, they'll usually find something to do. My latest for @PGHCityPaper explores why simple boredom for some is the "at-risk hours" for others —and the resource issue underlying it all.
pghcitypaper.com/news/commun…
James Paul retweeted
ICYMI, our series of letters between a teacher and former student trying to bridge the space built by incarceration. In three parts. Part 3:
pinjnews.org/letters-home-a-…
Had a super fun interview with scream queen @TiffanyShepis of Sharknado 2, Star Trek: Picard, Tromeo and Juliet, and damn near 100 other films. Read my latest in @PGHCityPaper
pghcitypaper.com/arts-entert…
🧵1/5 When juvenile girls go to the Allegheny County Jail, they’re housed separately in the medical housing unit — almost exclusively by themselves. Since 2016, there have been only 195 days in which more than a single girl has been in custody.
A 17-year-old girl at the Allegheny County Jail spends her days in near-total isolation. At the jail’s school facility, she’s taught by a limited stable of instructors. During recreation time, she’s by herself...
pghcitypaper.com/news/near-t…
🧵3/5 Allegheny County banned solitary confinement in May of 2021, defining solitary confinement as being held in a cell alone for more than 20 hours a day.