This case is a by-product of the jail overcrowding suit Inmates of Allegheny County Jail v. Wecht, pending in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania [JC-PA-5 of this collection]. In that case, the District Court ordered that starting January 1, 1984, the Allegheny County Jail would have a population cap of 500 male and 30 female prisoners. Violations of that cap would were to result in a $5,000 fine per inmate released to comply with the Court's order. Inmates of Allegheny County Jail v. Wecht, 565 F.Supp. 1278 (W.D. Penn. 1983).

In an attempt to alleviate the over-crowding, Allegheny County requested that the Commonwealth take certain inmates from its jail and transfer them to the Commonwealth's prison system. The Commonwealth refused. The County then filed a complaint in mandamus and in equity in December 28, 1983 in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania seeking an order compelling the Commonwealth to receive certain prisoners from the County's jail. The County also moved for a preliminary injunction. The Commonwealth Court held that neither mandamus nor injunction would issue and it dismiss the County's petition without leave to amend. Allegheny County v. Commonwealth, 480 A.2d 1330 (Pa.Cmwlth 1984). The County appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court which reversed. The County's petition was ordered reinstated, leave was granted to further amend the petition and a preliminary injunction was issued. Allegheny County v. Commonwealth, 490 A.2d 402 (Pa. 1985) (Allegheny I)

In 1986, the County filed another petition in the Commonwealth Court seeking relief in mandamus to compel transfer of additional inmates from the County to the Commonwealth's Bureau of Corrections to ease jail overcrowding. After a hearing on the merits, the Commonwealth Court denied the County's petition. Following an appeal and remand on a taxing issue, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed. Allegheny County v. Commonwealth, 544 A.2d 1309 (Pa. 1988) (Allegheny II).

Note that while during and following litigation of Allegheny I and II, the jail overcrowding case of Inmates of Allegheny County Jail v. Wecht continued in federal court. [See JC-PA-5 for a complete summary and listing of relevant case documents].

Dan Dalton - 02/01/2007


compress summary