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<\/a>PITTSBURGH \u2014<\/p>\nLawmakers are pushing for stricter bail laws and accountability for Allegheny County Jail, alleging that outside funding is influencing decisions about the jail population.<\/p>\n
“I am here today to speak out against my former employer for accepting millions of dollars in foundation grants to drive down the jail population,” Kelly Rae Robertson, a former bail investigator for the county jail, said at a news conference on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Robertson said she and others were pressured to recommend non-monetary release for individuals charged with serious crimes.<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 is reaching out to the courts for comment. The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office said it cannot comment on statements made by a third party.<\/p>\n
Several state representatives confirmed Robertson’s claims on Wednesday and emphasized the need for stricter bail laws.<\/p>\n
Looking for more news in your area | Subscribe to the WTAE YouTube Channel<\/a><\/p>\n State Rep. Natalie Mihalek said magisterial district judges are not receiving complete criminal histories of suspects. <\/p>\n “They are being given the arrest report. And if they ask for it, they’ll be given a history of the ‘failure to appear’ notices, but only for the county where the current crime has occurred. So, if you’re in Allegheny County and (the suspect) failed to appear in Beaver, Butler, or out of state, they would not be given that information,” Mihalek said. <\/p>\n State representatives Jeremy Shaffer, Valerie Gaydos and Mihalek are working on legislation aimed at improving public safety. They cited cases, including the death of Dr. Idris Evans<\/a>, where suspects committed crimes after being released without bail as evidence that reform is urgently needed. <\/p>\n “House Bill 2856 requires courts to consider important information when deciding whether someone should be able to be released and what conditions of bail should apply, including prior convictions, burglary convictions, pending criminal charges and protection from abuse orders,” Shaffer said.<\/p>\n Shaffer said that while the legislative session is ending soon, lawmakers are determined to pass these bills as quickly as possible, starting with approval by the judiciary committee.<\/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":"State representatives and a former bail investigator are pushing for stricter bail laws PITTSBURGH \u2014 Lawmakers are pushing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[900,6110,9647,37864,449,31,125886,4509,12913,297,25949,30847,125885,28,30,9318,29,125884,125887,67681,12905,125883,450,2583,10254],"class_list":["post-306940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-action-news","tag-allegheny","tag-allegheny-county-jail","tag-bail","tag-court","tag-crime","tag-current-crime","tag-donations","tag-grants","tag-information","tag-jail-population","tag-laws","tag-mihalek","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-lawmaker","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-robertson","tag-shaffer","tag-state-lawmaker","tag-state-rep","tag-strong-bail-law","tag-suspect","tag-wednesday","tag-wtae"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306940","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=306940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}