By MARIEKE ANDRONACHE

Special to The Press

Two summers ago, the issue of solitary confinement was at the forefront of resident input at Lehigh County commissioners’ meetings.

The issue was once again discussed during recent meetings.

Commissioner Jon Irons, chairman of the Courts and Corrections Committee, addressed the issue directly during the county board’s Feb. 28 meeting.

Irons said he had been in discussions with Director of Corrections Janine Donate 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 data comes of it in terms of both offenses leading to up to disciplinary action, and how it affects the inmates.

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

He would like to schedule a Courts and Corrections Committee meeting in early April to further discuss the use of solitary confinement in the county.

In other matters, 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, the bill 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 by the board.

The agreement provides for the development and installation of “a turnkey large-scale digital P25 trunked radio network 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.”

“[This is] much needed and I look forward to it being implemented,” Sponsor Commissioner Antonio Pineda said.

“I’m glad to hear of the benefits to their bid.”