Allegheny County Council unanimously passed a local PREA ordinance protecting transgender and intersex people in the Allegheny County Jail, even as the federal government moves to weaken those protections.
Allegheny County Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to codify federal Prison Rape Elimination Act protections into county law, creating local safeguards for incarcerated people, particularly transgender women and intersex people, even as the Trump administration moves to weaken those standards at the federal level. Ordinance 13180-26, referred to throughout public comment simply as “PREA,” passed during the May 26, 2026 County Council meeting with support from every councilmember present. Sponsored by Councilmembers Bethany Hallam, Alex Rose, Kathleen Madonna-Emmerling, and Patrick Catena, the ordinance amends Allegheny County code to formally incorporate provisions of the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act into local law governing the Allegheny County Jail.
