Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. November 14, 2023

Editorial: Pa. jail death database reveals statewide skirting of reporting requirements

Across Pennsylvania in 2022, at least 65 county jail inmates died in custody, but only about 40 of them were reported to federal and state authorities as required by law. That’s according to a new report from Brittany Hailer and Joshua Vaughn of the Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, which just unveiled a statewide dashboard tracking deaths in these facilities.

The comprehensive database shows how the problems documented in the Allegheny County Jail — poor care, shoddy recordkeeping and cynical workarounds to avoid embarrassing, and often horrifying, death reports — are present across the Commonwealth. Further, the report highlights inconsistencies across Pennsylvania’s jail system that make it difficult to keep track of institutional failings, and therefore to hold those public facilities accountable.

Jails have mechanisms for weaseling out of responsibility, by, for example, not counting an inmate’s death if the person was “released” to a hospital — after falling ill or being injured in jail, but before death. Autopsy reports have also shown medical examiners often don’t perform full autopsies or use technical, or downright misleading, language that shields the jail from responsibility.

This was the case for the family of Anthony Talotta, the man who died in September 2022 after ACJ failed to treat his severely infected leg. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s office indicated he had died of natural causes — specifically heart disease — while the hospital where he died listed septicemia, or blood poisoning from his infection, as the actual cause of death. The medical examiner’s barebones report made the death sound much less suspicious than the hospital records, which revealed the scale of the jail’s neglect.

Performing this kind of thorough investigation is out of reach for most families. PINJ estimated that the total cost to investigate a death and then pursue a lawsuit, like Mr. Talotta’s family did, could be upwards of $80,000. In other words, the system is designed to keep jail deaths mum, and to stonewall grieving families. It’s yet another example of treating the incarcerated as less than human.

Other government agencies, meanwhile, take extreme care when individuals in their custody are in danger. For instance, if a child in foster care is seriously or fatally injured, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services is required by law to allocate a panel of at least six experts to review the case. Another separate evaluation is conducted following the first, regardless of the initial panel’s findings. Similar protections must be set up for county jail deaths.

People held at ACJ, the majority of whom have yet to be convicted of a crime, should have more robust protections than a two-page medical examiner’s report that may or may not even be submitted. Incarcerated people are at the mercy of the government to meet their needs, and when the government fails, families and communities deserve answers.

PINJ’s tireless work can save lives and make Pennsylvania’s jails more humane places — if state officials can bring themselves to look closely, and to take action.

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Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. November 14, 2023

Editorial: It’s time to figure out marijuana in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvanians can use marijuana for anxiety or epilepsy. They can use it to ease the side effects of chemotherapy or the symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

There are 23 different medical conditions that will qualify someone for a card allowing them to access medical marijuana.

There is one reason that is just off the table: pleasure. You can use weed because you need it but not because you want it.

The history of marijuana and the law has been comparable in Pennsylvania and neighboring Ohio. Medical cannabis was signed into law in Pennsylvania in April 2016; Ohio did it June 2016. Ohio stopped driver license suspensions for marijuana use at the same time; Pennsylvania took until 2018.

And both have had a push and pull over recreational use. Pennsylvania has teased it out. U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Braddock, supported it strongly as lieutenant governor. He and then-Gov. Tom Wolf held a listening tour to get opinions from across the state. Wolf called for the legislature to legalize in 2020.

In Ohio, the first attempts to legalize happened in 2015, even before medical use was OK’d. It failed — and not by a little, either. Sixty-five percent of voters rejected the idea. That changed Tuesday when 57% of Ohio voters said yes, making the Buckeye State the 24th state to permit recreational use.

It makes “When will Pennsylvania follow?” a natural question. But does it have to be? That’s hard to say definitively.

The Keystone State is now surrounded by places where an edible gummy or a joint is completely fine without having to prove you have glaucoma or multiple sclerosis. The only exception is West Virginia which also only allows medical use.

That doesn’t mean Pennsylvania should jump off the bridge because all the other kids are doing it. Peer pressure is no reason to write law.

But there are other reasons to consider it. Loss of tax revenue is one. That money could go toward support of drug and addiction programs. If residents can go to Ohio, Maryland, New York or New Jersey to get the product they want and give that money to those treasuries, is that better for Pennsylvania? For that matter, is it a potential negative for residents who might go to Steubenville to buy marijuana and then cross the border back into a place where it is illegal?

The Ohio vote creates more than one reason for Pennsylvania legislators to actively consider all of the moving pieces of marijuana and the law and figure out where to go from here.

While the state House has an interest in moving forward, the Senate is more reluctant. That is fine. Maybe legalization isn’t the right road for Pennsylvania, but open discussions by lawmakers are a different story.

Perhaps a middle ground might be decriminalization of possession, which would help residents who pick up product in states were it is legal. It could also protect the medical marijuana companies. It wouldn’t address the tax issue though.

Marijuana is a complicated issue, and the Ohio legalization is boxing Pennsylvania into a place where a decision is going to be needed sooner or later.

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Scranton Times-Tribune. November 10, 2023

Editorial: Court ruling in school board case scores a victory for transparency

The Commonwealth Court struck a blow for government accountability and transparency this week when it ruled a Lehigh County school district violated the state Sunshine Law by ratifying a multimillion-dollar teachers contract without listing the vote on its agenda before the meeting.

The ruling does not penalize the Parkland School Board in any way or invalidate the three-year contract, but it puts school boards and other government bodies on notice that they owe the public an opportunity to comment on actions that expend public funds.

The board was sued by school district taxpayer Jarrett Coleman, who is now a state senator, after it approved the contract at an Oct. 26, 2021, meeting. The board first voted to add the contract to its agenda, noting it had not done so previously because the teachers union had ratified the proposed contract less than 24 hours before the meeting.

The Commonwealth Court struck a blow for government accountability and transparency this week when it ruled a Lehigh County school district violated the state Sunshine Law by ratifying a multimillion-dollar teachers contract without listing the vote on its agenda before the meeting.

The ruling does not penalize the Parkland School Board in any way or invalidate the three-year contract, but it puts school boards and other government bodies on notice that they owe the public an opportunity to comment on actions that expend public funds.

The board was sued by school district taxpayer Jarrett Coleman, who is now a state senator, after it approved the contract at an Oct. 26, 2021, meeting. The board first voted to add the contract to its agenda, noting it had not done so previously because the teachers union had ratified the proposed contract less than 24 hours before the meeting. The Commonwealth Court struck a blow for government accountability and transparency this week when it ruled a Lehigh County school district violated the state Sunshine Law by ratifying a multimillion-dollar teachers contract without listing the vote on its agenda before the meeting.

The ruling does not penalize the Parkland School Board in any way or invalidate the three-year contract, but it puts school boards and other government bodies on notice that they owe the public an opportunity to comment on actions that expend public funds.

The board was sued by school district taxpayer Jarrett Coleman, who is now a state senator, after it approved the contract at an Oct. 26, 2021, meeting. The board first voted to add the contract to its agenda, noting it had not done so previously because the teachers union had ratified the proposed contract less than 24 hours before the meeting.

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Uniontown Herald-Standard. November 9, 2023

Editorial: Emergency care for children needs scrutiny

There are many good causes with their proverbial hands out, seeking money from the federal government. There always will be.

However, The Wall Street Journal, in its Oct. 2 edition, called attention to a need that should spike interest in the mind and heart of every member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Additionally, those elected officials should engage in some determined legwork to identify whether the problem on which the Journal focused is indeed a problem — or not — in their particular sphere of representation.

The issue on which the Journal focused in its lengthy October article is hospital emergency rooms’ preparedness for treating children.

“Children are dying in unprepared emergency rooms across America” was the headline that greeted readers that day, followed by the message “Hospitals and regulators have done little to ensure E.R.s are ready to treat children.”

This editorial is not aimed at generating suspicions about care for children at area hospitals. Rather, it is an opportunity for area hospitals — with the Journal report in mind — to tout their expertise and internal expectations and requirements regarding the treating of children. But, if applicable, hospitals of this region that could significantly beef up their services to children – and make additional needed improvements in that line of care – by way of the availability of additional federal and/or state money should join the discussion about such needs.

Consider this quote from the Journal article attributed to state program officials:

“Federal funding to states for improving child emergency care amounts to about $190,000 per state each year – enough to pay for one or two staffers and some free training for hospitals and emergency responders.”

That level of support would be laughable if it were not so serious.

Some people might suggest that hospitals make an adequate or excessive amount of money in their daily treatment of patients. However, most people embracing such viewpoints have hardly a clue about the costs and other challenges affecting hospitals’ ability to deliver outstanding services and the most up-to-date care options – for adults as well as children.

Still, what the Journal reported on Oct. 2 was and is alarming because the article exposed a situation about which few people probably had much or any prior knowledge. Members of Congress need to look closely at the information that the Journal compiled, such as:

— About 1,440 children died from 2012 to 2017 because the emergency rooms that treated them were allegedly not well prepared.

— Hospitals have had little incentive to improve care for children because many government agencies and professional groups have not required action.

— Twenty-five states do not check E.R. pediatric preparedness at all, and even some that do check do not publish names of the hospitals that earned recognition for being prepared.

— Children are four times as likely to die in less-prepared emergency rooms, according to a 2019 study published in the journal Pediatrics. In addition to avoidable deaths, large numbers of children have been left with severe long-term health conditions, according to doctors and researchers.

— The issue of children’s emergency room care needs to be scrutinized all across America like never before.

END