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.
The legislation arrives amid mounting concern from LGBTQ+ advocates, prison abolitionists, and public health organizers after the U.S. Department of Justice signaled it would no longer fully enforce PREA standards protecting transgender incarcerated people.
The ordinance specifically references a December 2025 memorandum circulated by the Department of Justice instructing PREA auditors to disregard provisions that conflict with President Donald Trump’s anti-trans executive order.
By codifying PREA standards locally, Allegheny County creates a layer of protection that cannot be immediately stripped away through changing federal administrative policy.
During public comment, speakers framed the legislation not as an abstract procedural update, but as a direct response to the realities of violence inside jails and prisons.
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ACT UP Pittsburgh, which organized community turnout around the vote, described the ordinance as a necessary intervention against the use of sexual violence as punishment against incarcerated transgender women and intersex people.
“The bodies of incarcerated people will not be weaponized, regardless of what happens in Washington,” the organization said in a press release issued ahead of the vote.
The ordinance itself repeatedly references the original intent behind PREA, including congressional findings that incarcerated people face widespread sexual violence, inadequate reporting systems, and severe long-term physical and psychological harm after assault.
It also specifically references the heightened vulnerability faced by LGBTQ+ incarcerated people.
Federal PREA standards were expanded during the Obama administration to include additional protections for LGBTQIA+ people in custody, including standards around housing decisions, searches, and protection from abuse.
Advocates warned those protections have increasingly come under threat since Trump returned to office.
For many organizers who spoke around the legislation, Tuesday’s vote was also tied to broader questions of public health, incarceration, and HIV prevention.
ACT UP Pittsburgh connected the ordinance directly to its ongoing AIDS activism, arguing that incarceration intensifies conditions that increase HIV transmission while exposing vulnerable people to violence and medical neglect.
The ordinance now formally embeds PREA protections into Allegheny County law governing the jail system, ensuring county-level standards remain in place regardless of future federal rollbacks.
Organizers and public commenters argued that local governments cannot wait for federal institutions to protect vulnerable incarcerated people. Instead, they said, municipalities and counties must actively codify protections before federal standards disappear entirely.
Tuesday’s vote positions Allegheny County among a growing number of local governments attempting to preserve LGBTQ+ protections independently of federal policy shifts.