Latest News
‘A significant history of fraud and deception’: Allegheny County Jail doctor disciplined by medical licensing boards across the country
by Brittany Hailer UPDATE, October 5, 2022: After learning of PINJ’s investigation and subsequent story, Dan Laurent, vice president of corporate communications of Allegheny Health Network, informed the newsroom that Wilson Bernales has been suspended pending assessment of his qualifications and state license. “As you have noted, Dr. Wilson Bernales is a PA licensed physician…
Keep reading
Combined drug overdose cited as cause of death for man incarcerated at Allegheny County Jail
By Brittany Hailer Victor Joseph Zilinek, 39, an incarcerated person at the Allegheny County Jail, suffered a drug overdose resulting in his July 13 death, according to a press release from the Allegheny County Medical Examiner. His manner of death was ruled an accident. The combined toxic effects of fentanyl and methamphetamine contributed to his…
Keep reading
Hours before he died, the Allegheny County Jail released an incarcerated man with intellectual disability from custody
by Brittany Hailer Anthony Talotta, 57, died Wednesday at UPMC Mercy Hospital after he was found unresponsive in his cell at the Allegheny County Jail. Talotta, diagnosed with autism and intellectual disability, was rushed from the jail’s mental health unit. The jail released him from its custody hours before his death. Talotta is the 17th…
Keep reading
PINJ has paid particular attention to the Allegheny County Jail throughout the pandemic, tracking the deaths of those in custody as well as the conditions incarcerated individuals have been forced to endure.
View all of our coverage on the Allegheny County Jail by clicking here.
More News
Jail officials across Pa. sound alarm as mental health crisis puts people at risk, survey finds
A statewide survey of county jails by Spotlight PA and the Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism revealed many facilities openly admit they are not equipped for the growing mental health crisis by Brittany Hailer of the Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism Danielle Ohl of Spotlight PA County jails across Pennsylvania lack the resources to address…
Keep reading
Rushdie and Free Speech, from Tehran to Pittsburgh
by Jody DiPerna, Belt Magazine Literature isn’t just under attack in Iran, China, or El Salvador Since the attempted assassination of the Anglo-Indian author Salman Rushdie as he prepared to speak at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York, I’ve been thinking about the ways that writers threaten the status quo by forcing us to…
Keep reading
Report: U.S. government failed to properly count deaths of people in prisons and jails
The Dept of Justice failed to enforce the Death in Custody Reporting Act of 2013, which requires states that receive federal funding to report prison and jail deaths to the agency by Ariana Figueroa, Pennsylvania Capital-Star WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice did not properly count nearly 1,000 deaths of incarcerated people in jails and prisons,…
Keep reading
Advocating for accommodations has been a constant, but largely quiet, struggle for college students with disabilities since the Americans with Disabilities Act became law in 1990.
Read from our award-winning series, Leveling the Playing Field, here.
Art
A melange of history, lived experience and fable, Caitlyn Hunter’s first book is urgent, magical storytelling
With family stories leading the way, inherited photos sprinkled throughout, and cover art designed by her cousin, “Power in the Tongue” (Tolsun Books), really is a family affair. by Jody DiPerna Caitlyn Hunter is the repository and the spillway of her family’s intergenerational love, trauma and legend. In Hunter’s new book, she sets the tone…
Keep reading
Mant¿s’ new collection, “The Rootwork Stretched,” grows poetry
Mant¿s’ poems evoke city overlooks, steep slopes and wild growth amidst urban density. They bring forth the feeling of a childhood spent kicking around the neighborhood as it celebrates Black women and all the ways that they find to create community and family and restoration.
Keep reading
‘The Violence Project’ book investigates mass shootings in order to find solutions
In September of this year, Abrams Press released a new book by Jillian Peterson and James Densley titled, “The Violence Project: How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic.” The book is the result of more than four years of work and research.
Keep readingEducation
Kindergarten camps aim to fill in social and emotional gaps for students who missed preschool during the pandemic
Important learning time has been lost in kindergarten as teachers had to work with students who were not used to the routines of school By Mary Niederberger The start of the new school year was weeks away, but at Duquesne Elementary School a small group of students was already in a kindergarten classroom in late…
Keep reading
Pittsburgh Public Schools summer programming gives students a BOOST from pandemic learning losses
By Mary Niederberger Addison Boehm, Kerria Scanlon and Tamia Day, all soon-to-be sixth graders in the Pittsburgh Public Schools, had their heads bent over a laptop and a small robot made of Legos as they worked together on a recent morning in a classroom at Pittsburgh Langley K-8. “You are in control so you are…
Keep reading
Does tutoring + culturally relevant lessons + double math periods = math proficiency?
District leaders look for solutions to alarmingly low math proficiency—especially among Black students By Mary Niederberger Illustration by Kinsley Stocum If all goes as planned, next year students in the Pittsburgh Public Schools who are struggling with math will be able to access a tutor around the clock whether they are stumped by homework after…
Keep reading
Education in Pittsburgh was upended in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly closed schools. Since then, as multiple virus waves have swept the nation, students have been in and out of physical classrooms, learning sometimes online, sometimes in person, sometimes not at all. How will they rebound?
Commentary
Our national pathology over guns is no longer insane. It’s inhuman.
by John L. Micek, Pennsylvania Capital-Star Want to know what rage feels like? It’s waking on a Wednesday morning on a school day as the cable news talking heads sift through the latest on the shooting at a Texas elementary school that left 21 people dead, most of them children, and looking at your daughter…
Keep reading
Response to the Allegheny County DA’s announcement to seek death penalty in cases
Robert J. Perkins and Kelvin L. Morris In the past month alone, the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office announced that it intends to seek the death penalty in several new cases. That is a bad idea. For many reasons. Putting aside the moral and religious questions of whether it is ever appropriate for the state…
Keep reading
Pittsburgh is Still a Contested Symbol
By Ed Simon In his book, ‘An Alternative History of Pittsburgh’ released by Belt Press this summer, Ed Simon considers the history of Pittsburgh from the geologic formation of the region, dating back to about 300 million years ago, to present day. He has been thinking about Pittsburgh and all of the stories that go…
Keep reading
Social Justice