Court leaders and Allegheny County Jail administrators delivered an unusually optimistic set of updates at the Jail Oversight Board’s final meeting of the year, detailing reforms they said are beginning to reduce the jail’s population and strengthen operations heading into 2026.

“It's a huge issue, and I hear from people about it all the time,” Judge Susan Evashavik DiLucente, president judge and chair of the board, said during Thursday’s meeting.

As of Friday, the jail’s population (not including alternative housing) stood at 1,827 — down from 1,976 exactly a month before, according to the county’s jail population management dashboard.

Between October and November, the number of bookings also dropped from 805 to 658.

Judge DiLucente attributed the “statistical improvements” to a se

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