Two summers ago, the issue of solitary confinement was at the forefront of citizens’ input at Lehigh County Board of Commissioners meetings. The issue was brought up again in recent meetings.

Commissioner Jon Irons, who chairs the courts and corrections committee, addressed the issue directly during Lehigh County commissioners Feb. 28 meeting. He explained he had been in discussions with Director of Corrections Janine Donate in recent days about the use of administrative disciplinary segregation.

According to Irons, Donate and her team have developed a plan to track inmates throughout March to see what kind of data comes of it in terms of both offenses leading up to disciplinary action and how it affects the inmates.

“The caveat is that this is exploratory data collection. It is not something that is normally done in the system, so it will give an interesting starting point,” Irons said.

He said he is hoping to schedule a courts and corrections committee meeting in early April to further discuss the use of solitary confinement in the county.

A bill sponsored by Commissioners Jeffrey Dutt and Ron Beitler to amend the 2024-28 Lehigh County capital plan for electoral-related upgrades was introduced. If passed, it would provide for an investment of $586,576 to cover costs of upgrades for registration equipment and software, a subscription to online interactive poll worker training and the purchase of election management software.

A resolution approving a professional services agreement with Tactical Public Safety LLC was passed. The agreement provides for the development and installation of “turnkey large-scale digital P25 trunked radio networks for the replacement of existing fixed network and subscriber equipment currently being used by Lehigh County as a communications system to dispatch police, fire, emergency medical and other services.”

Sponsored by Commissioner Antonio Pineda, the system, he said, is “much needed and [he is] looking forward to it being implemented. I’m glad to hear of the benefits to their bid.”