\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Pittsburgh Planning Commission voted 4-2 against recommending city council approval for a proposed transitional housing facility for federal inmates in Banksville, citing community concerns about safety and proximity to schools, daycares, and parks. During the two-hour meeting, representatives from Dismas Charities explained their plans to house 104 federal inmates at the facility \u2014 the former Fraternal Order of Police building– emphasizing 24-hour staffing and surveillance cameras. However, they acknowledged that the system is not perfect and confirmed that violent offenders could be housed there. “What we are saying is that this cannot be received, this is a first step, not a last step, so that needs to be another thing that’s clear. There are a lot of things here that are not being told as true,” Commissioner Darrin Kelly said during a heated exchange with a Dismas Charities representative. “Just to be clear, there certainly can be violent offenders, and this is the last step, as we stated, until they are in the community,” the Dismas Charities representative said. Residents voiced strong opposition to the proposal, citing safety concerns and issues reported at other Dismas facilities across the country. “We are seeing a clear pattern where individuals are walking away from facilities without permission. In some cases, all cases multiple times within a few months. These are not minor compliance issues. These are people under federal supervision leaving custody and entering surrounding communities. There are also many serious incidents where there has been a homicide inside a dismissed facility where one resident killed another one,” one Banksville resident said. After hearing from 11 residents and reviewing written concerns, the planning commission voted to recommend that the city council reject the proposal. City council will have the final say on whether the facility is approved. Download the WTAE app to stay connected with breaking news. Sign up for our email newsletters to get breaking news in your inbox.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tPITTSBURGH \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The Pittsburgh Planning Commission voted 4-2 against recommending city council approval for a proposed transitional housing facility for federal inmates in Banksville, citing community concerns about safety and proximity to schools, daycares, and parks. <\/p>\n
During the two-hour meeting, representatives from Dismas Charities explained their plans to house 104 federal inmates at the facility \u2014 the former Fraternal Order of Police building– emphasizing 24-hour staffing and surveillance cameras. <\/p>\n
However, they acknowledged that the system is not perfect and confirmed that violent offenders could be housed there. <\/p>\n
“What we are saying is that this cannot be received, this is a first step, not a last step, so that needs to be another thing that’s clear. There are a lot of things here that are not being told as true,” Commissioner Darrin Kelly said during a heated exchange with a Dismas Charities representative. <\/p>\n
“Just to be clear, there certainly can be violent offenders, and this is the last step, as we stated, until they are in the community,” the Dismas Charities representative said. <\/p>\n
Residents voiced strong opposition to the proposal, citing safety concerns and issues reported at other Dismas facilities across the country. <\/p>\n
“We are seeing a clear pattern where individuals are walking away from facilities without permission. In some cases, all cases multiple times within a few months. These are not minor compliance issues. These are people under federal supervision leaving custody and entering surrounding communities. There are also many serious incidents where there has been a homicide inside a dismissed facility where one resident killed another one,” one Banksville resident said. <\/p>\n
After hearing from 11 residents and reviewing written concerns, the planning commission voted to recommend that the city council reject the proposal. <\/p>\n
City council will have the final say on whether the facility is approved. <\/p>\n
Download the WTAE app<\/a> to stay connected with breaking news. Sign up for our email newsletters<\/a> to get breaking news in your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Planning Commission voted 4-2 against recommending city council approval for a proposed transitional housing facility for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[894,5901,62215,79420,54206,10499,54208,54207,83005,83007,73,75,74,83004,42321,83006,12883,75214,13987,1373],"class_list":["post-185954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-allegheny-county","tag-banksville","tag-city-council-approval","tag-community-concern","tag-dismas-charities","tag-facility","tag-federal-inmate","tag-fop","tag-former-fop-building","tag-last-step","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-planning-commission-vote","tag-proposal","tag-proximity","tag-resident","tag-safety-concern","tag-thing","tag-transitional-housing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}