Allegheny County Jail to resume in-person visits but only for the fully vaccinated

The Allegheny County Jail will allow in-person social visits for the first time since the start of the covid pandemic starting next week, though visits for right now will be limited to fully vaccinated incarcerated individuals and fully vaccinated family members, officials said.

Exceptions will be made for children under the age of 5 who cannot yet be vaccinated, as well as for incarcerated unvaccinated children under the age of 18 who cannot make a vaccination decision for themselves, Warden Orlando Harper said.

“The covid-19 pandemic has been a difficult time for all of us, and that includes our incarcerated population,” Harper said in a statement.

The jail suspended all visits, including attorney visits, early in the pandemic as cases began to spread quickly in the communal space. Video visits have been permitted during that time, a program that Harper called a “tremendous success.”

The video visits via tablet will remain an option.

In-person attorney visits have been permitted for fully the fully vaccinated since Monday.

Visitation will be limited to different days for different levels within the facility. For example, Pods 5D, 5F and 5E will be permitted visits on Friday. Level 2 and Pod 5MD will be on Tuesday. A full schedule is available at alleghenycounty.us/jail/visitors/visitation-schedules.aspx

Visitors much register two days in advance, and they must have their physical vaccination card or a paper copy of it or medical records, as phones aren’t allowed inside the facility. Visitors must also remain masked inside the facility.

Visitation will be available 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.

Jail officials have been loosening mitigation strategies for several weeks as falling case counts across Allegheny County as a whole have been reflected within the facility.

Last week, in-person programming and services resumed at the jail, and split recreation will be phased back in as the facility moves away from the full-lockdown mode it has been in for more than a month.