The Allegheny County Jail oversight board is expected to vote on a new warden at its Jan. 9 meeting.
The new warden, whose name has not yet been released, is expected to meet with members of county council on Monday, said Council President Pat Catena.
Catena said he hasn’t talked to anyone in the administration about who the pick is or their background.
“I know very little,” he said. “I look forward to meeting the person.”
County spokeswoman Abigail Gardner said that the new candidate will begin making the rounds to meet county officials on Monday prior to the approval vote on Thursday.
The new warden will replace former Warden Orlando Harper, who retired in September 2023, and interim warden Shane Dady, who filled in for more than a year, before returning to his position with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections last month.
They will fill the role at a facility that has long been under fire for being understaffed in its corrections, medical and mental health departments.
The jail, with a population this week of 1,892, has a bad reputation, including complaints of excessive force and a troubling number of deaths among those incarcerated there. There have been a number of federal lawsuits alleging misuse of solitary confinement as well as a lack of medical care.
The situation was further exacerbated by a strained relationship between the Jail Oversight Board, tasked with monitoring its operation, and Harper.
However, in recent months, that relationship seems to have thawed with Dady in charge, and in March, the county and Abolitionist Law Center announced a legal settlement in one of the class action complaints over mental health treatment.
County Executive Sara Innamorato announced in the spring that there would be a national search to fill the position. She hoped it would be completed by October.
But the process ran more slowly than expected. In November, the administration announced the search firm had narrowed the pool of 41 applicants to about a half-dozen semifinalists.
