Pastor Wins PA County Commissioner Seat Running on Prison Reform

History has was made in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, as former Pastor Justin Douglas becomes a new county commissioner, flipping control of the commission to the Democratic party for the first time in more than 100 years. Douglas took his oath to office today in his hometown of Conewago Township, where he is the first commissioner to be elected from the township.

Douglas won his election after running a longshot, under the radar campaign. The campaign highlighted 18 deaths at Dauphin County prison since 2019 and wants to reform it as a county commissioner, which oversee the Dauphin County Prison.

"Prison reform is what I ran on, and it's something that I plan on giving a lot of attention to. So that's the goal," Douglas said.

A year ago, he says he could not have named the three men who serve on the county commission of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, his home since 2015. However, Douglas grew active in recent years in protest of conditions in the local jail, an aging and oppressive facility where people die at an alarming rate.

He spent roughly a fifth of the little campaign money he raised on a single, highway-side billboard highlighting the lethal lock-up, which sits between Harrisburg and the Douglas family home near the southeast edge of the county. Dauphin County has admitted at least two jail deaths in each of the last four years, a pace that stands out even by terrible national standards. Local journalists have found that the county has often misreported its jail deaths, and in some cases, covering up its own responsibility. 

In one such instance, Dauphin County reported the death of Herbert Tilghman as a “medical event,” which, PennLive found, obscured the fact that prison staff failed to take Tilghman’s stomach pains seriously, providing minimal treatment and even accusing him of faking illness shortly before he died. In a separate case, the county initially said Ishmail Thompson died in a “medical episode,” failing to note that officers had placed Thompson in a restraint chair, and a hood over his head, then pepper-sprayed him soon before he fell unconscious and, ultimately, comatose.

Douglas vows that he’ll use his new standing to demand major improvements in detention conditions, from fixing the broken pipes to restricting solitary confinement. "Let’s be honest: the county just paid a family $4 million because they murdered somebody," Douglas stated. "If that happens again on my watch, I’m going to want to say a lot.”

Read more about Justin Douglas' background in activism and his goals concerning prison reform in the article "His Shock Win Flipped a Pennsylvania County. Now He Vows to Raise Hell over Its Lethal Jail," at Bolts Magazine. Bolts Magazine is a digital magazine focusing on two policy areas where local governments play a key role: criminal justice and voting rights.