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Advocates press council to codify PREA and call for Pat Catena to resign amid mailer controversy
Summary
Multiple public commenters, led by ACT UP Pittsburgh speakers, urged the council to codify PREA protections locally and demanded accountability from Council Member Pat Catena over a campaign mailer; other speakers defended Catena and criticized protesters.
Speakers during the meeting’s public-comment periods pressed Allegheny County Council to take concrete action to protect incarcerated transgender and intersex people and called for accountability for a recent campaign mailer associated with Council Member Pat Catena.
Representatives of ACT UP Pittsburgh made the principal case. "This is not only cruel, it's a human rights violation," said B. Claymier, summarizing allegations about federal policy changes and local risks to incarcerated trans and intersex people and urging the council to enshrine the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) in county code.
Joe Ratliff, identified as a member of ACT UP, and Samantha Fitzgerald, a trans resident and ACT UP member, also urged passage of local PREA protections and publicly called on Pat Catena to resign his council seat amid the controversy over a campaign mailer. Fitzgerald cited the case of Jules Williams, who was previously mistreated while held at the Allegheny County Jail, as evidence of the need for transparent housing and medical-care policies for incarcerated transgender people.
Several other public speakers criticized the protesters' tactics or defended Catena. Joe Griffo and Chad Ringbloom, for example, argued that Catena expressed widely held concerns about women’s sports and criticized calls for his removal. Mark McKeown described himself as a longtime Democrat who said he disagreed with efforts to force Catena out.
Other community speakers — including Joshua Zinser, Corey Roma and Rosalind Tosh — urged council members to take public stands and said silent members would be remembered in future elections. Activists pressed the council to move beyond symbolic statements to tangible policy changes, such as codifying PREA locally and increasing jail transparency.
Council did adopt Ordinance 13810-26 during the meeting, which the advocates had urged; the transcript indicates the ordinance was described as codifying federal PREA provisions into county code and passed unanimously later in the evening.
