Inmate dies at Allegheny County Jail

A man incarcerated at Allegheny County Jail died Sunday, according to authorities.

Ronald James Andrus, 78, of McKees Rocks, was identified in a release by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Andrus was pronounced dead at about 3:15 p.m.

The county did not provide further details.

However, on Monday, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald announced a plan to contract with a third-party organization to review deaths within the jail. The National Commission on Correctional Healthcare recommends “an administrative review, a clinical mortality review, and, in the event of a suicide, a psychological autopsy,” the county said in a statement.

“NCCHC will bring in a multi-disciplinary team of physicians, behavioral health experts, and correctional policy and security experts to review the history of deaths that occurred at the jail,” Fitzgerald said. “I have directed the administration and jail administration to cooperate fully with this review and to provide the NCCHC team data and records and participate in first-person interviews.”

Allegheny County Councilwoman Bethany Hallam, who serves on the jail oversight board, posted to social media that Andrus had been in jail on a probation violation since mid-July.

It feels like every week we’re hearing about another one of our neighbors dying at the Allegheny County Jail…
Another person who should never have been there in the first place ???? pic.twitter.com/pVpeUJEeCl

— Bethany Hallam (@bethanyhallam) August 15, 2022

County spokesman Jesse Geleynse said Andrus had spent 10 days in the hospital and was released Sunday back to the jail.

“He had been back at the facility on the medical unit for about an hour when a medical emergency was declared,” Geleynse said.

Corrections officers responded to the cell, as did medical and additional staff.

“As with all incidents at the facility, an internal review will be conducted and county police Internal Affairs will conduct an independent investigation,” Geleynse said.

Andrus is at least the fifth inmate to die in the county jail this year.

In January, a 77-year-old former priest who was accused of sex charges was transferred to a local hospital after being found unresponsive in his cell. The inmate, Paul Spisak, died at the hospital, which reported numerous medical complications.

Two months later, 26-year-old Gerald Thomas died shortly after collapsing at the jail. Thomas, who was in jail on a technical probation violation, hit his head and was unresponsive after collapsing, according to his family.

In April, a man being held at the jail died after he was found unresponsive. Jerry Lee Ross Jr., 48, was found unresponsive and pronounced dead by jail medical staff.

Victor Joseph Zilinek, 39, died July 13 in the jail.

At least 15 people have died at the jail, or after being hospitalized from the jail, since April 2020.