Jail Staff Members Volunteer at Peoples Oakland
Published on August 05, 2025
The Allegheny County Jail relies on the hard work and passionate dedication of volunteers in virtually every department.
Lately, jail staff members have found opportunities to give back by volunteering at the organizations the jail volunteers represent.
Friday, July 25, the thud of beanbags hitting the cornhole board and the smells of grilling meat wafted through the sultry Oakland air as a half-dozen ACJ volunteers joined Peoples Oakland at its monthly cookout. Jail staff helped prepare and serve the food and took turns engaging with the program participants through conversation and play.
Founded in 1974 in response to the closure of state hospitals, Peoples Oakland is a community-based rehabilitation center that provides psychiatric rehab services to adults living with chronic severe mental illness.
“A lot of those individuals landed in Oakland due to the proximity of Western (Psychiatric Hospital),” said Lezetta L. Cox, the executive director of Peoples Oakland. “We founded Peoples Oakland to offer resources and advocate for their needs, but over the past 50 years that we’ve been in existence, we have expanded our services to meet the needs of the community.”
One of those needs proved to be working with the Allegheny County Jail. Individuals with mental health conditions can wind up in the carceral system when they might be better served with community resources on the outside. In fact, the National Alliance of Mental Illness estimates that approximately 44 percent of those held in local jails have a history of mental illness, more than twice the national average.
Allison Haley noticed this when she first began coming to the jail as a volunteer with Foundation of HOPE in 2018. Haley originally taught classes and provided counseling to individuals on the HOPE pod as she sought to complete the hours necessary to earn her License of Clinical Social Work certification. While volunteering, she observed that mental health issues seemed to play a large role in incarceration.
“I became aware of the systemic problem,” Haley said. “I was having these individual interviews with these guys who were telling me they didn’t have any mental health diagnoses, but I was like, ‘I think maybe you do.’”
So, in 2020, Haley proposed an idea to Cox: they would create a program that would help prepare incarcerated individuals for release by providing education and resources while they were still inside, then help those individuals transition to receiving services on the outside once released. Thus, the Bridging the Gap program was born, and debuted in 2021 with a grant providing funding.
Individuals receive a warm handoff to Peoples Oakland and can avail themselves of the services the program offers. The only requirements are that an individual must have experienced incarceration and must be willing to receive mental health services.
“We want to be that bridge,” Cox said. “We want to ensure individuals who are being released are connected to the services they need without a wait time. Oftentimes that (wait time) leads back to hospitalization or reincarceration.”
For those with chronic, persistent mental health challenges, Peoples Oakland offers its social rehabilitation program, “which is really about community connectedness and feeling like you have that sense of belonging,” Haley said.
The social rehab participants frequent the center from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. each weekday and had the chance to eat and interact with the jail volunteers. The organization currently serves approximately 200 Allegheny County residents, a number that has increased since Bridging the Gap began.
In addition to Bridging the Gap and the Social Rehabilitation Program, Peoples Oakland also offers Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services. The psychiatric program takes place both at the center and in the community and is Peoples’ first billable service. That’s important for all non-profit organizations that are frequently dealing with funding issues.
The fact that the Bridging the Gap is grant-funded means the plucky staff of eight can try things without needing as much approval. They’ve recently branched out into diversion advocacy, where they appear alongside program participants at court appearances to offer perspective and outline successes for the judge. Haley would like Peoples Oakland to continue to expand and fill additional carceral and community needs as they arise.
“I would love to offer more classes (at the jail),” Haley said. “We would love to be able to offer individual counseling to some of the people we’ve met (at the jail).”
For now, though, she’ll settle for some jail volunteer help, leading a facility tour and celebrating with a burger on the deck.
Media inquiries may be directed to Jesse Geleynse, Public Information Officer for the Allegheny County Jail
jesse.geleynse@alleghenycounty.us or by phone at 412-350-1267 or 412-760-4760 (cell).