PITTSBURGH — An 11 Investigates the exclusive following that deadly stabbing inside the Allegheny County Jail.
Tyrone Good was attacked and killed last week.
Last night, 11 Investigates broke the news that a corrections officer has been suspended without pay.
The president of the prison employees’ union, Brian Englert, is sounding the alarm tonight.
He says there was a stabbing in the same housing unit just two weeks before this fatal stabbing and he’s worried it will happen again.
Earle: Is this something that could easily happen again?
Englert: I can tell you right now that it could happen again and I hope that it doesn’t happen.
Englert expressed concern that several changes have compromised safety and security at the jail.
He says inmates have more access to Android tablets that they’ve broken and used to make weapons.
Englert: We’ve been finding weapons made from these heat shields left and right.
He says during the last three years, fights have increased, and he says there are empty housing units that should be put into use.
Englert: What we do have is five empty housing units that we could be breaking down these people into to make it more manageable and safe.
Englert says Tyrone Good, the inmate stabbed to death last week, had been in restricted housing for disrupting operations.
He was sent to level four, and 20 minutes later, he was dead.
Englert says it’s unclear why the guard in that unit was suspended, and he’s filed an appeal. He dismissed any talk of an inside job.
Englert: That level is a really tight level. The officers that work that level and work there for a long time, more than anything, it looks like a well-executed plan by the people involved.
Earle: By the inmates?
Englert: By the inmates.
Englert says he was also troubled by what happened or didn’t happen after the stabbing.
Englert: A murder just happened in that facility; that unit wasn’t searched at all.
Earle: The unit where this happened wasn’t searched?
Englert: No, it was put on lockdown, but they didn’t search it for additional weapons.
Earle: Why not?
Englert: I don’t know?
Englert also said the administration recently identified 31 positions that could be cut from the jail.
Englert: Jail is dangerous. People are there for a reason, and if you want to cut 31 jobs after a homicide, I would question that all day.
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