2 inmates, 4 staff infected as Pa. tries to reduce population
Two Pennsylvania inmates and four staff members have now tested positive for COVID-19 amidst a system-wide quarantine, State Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said Wednesday.
Both inmates are at State Correctional Institution Phoenix in Montgomery County, Wetzel said. The first, reported Sunday, prompted the DOC to go into quarantine mode this week. The second was identified late Tuesday, according to Wetzel. He did not provide any information on the locations of the four staff members, however, citing Department of Health regulations.
“I think we’re doing what most of the systems in the country are doing ,” Wetzel said. “The difference is here… we are in a total system quarantine. That just means really limited movement. Basically, most of the out-of-cell time will take place in the housing unit and with small groups, trying to achieve social distancing in the places that we can.”
Wetzel said all staff has been using cloth masks for the past two weeks, but direct providers, those working in intake areas and officers working on units with a confirmed case are using N95 masks like those found in hospitals. The DOC is also doing staff screenings that include temperature checks at all buildings and has reduced outside contact for prisoners to “virtual” visits, phone calls and emails.
Wetzel said the state prison system is working to reduce its population, currently pegged at about 44,500, by focusing first on the most medically vulnerable in several categories.
These include about 400 inmates who have exceeded their minimum time for nonviolent offenses with no victims; another 1,100 or so nonviolent inmates who have returned just for technical parole violations with no new charges; and those who must complete some program in order to be paroled. For that last group, Wetzel said the state parole board would see if that programming could be done on the street.
In order to expedite the process, Wetzel said DOC is working with the state Senate to fill three empty positions on the board and ratchet up reviews of those cases. He said 94 names have already been kicked over to the board for review.
“Beyond that, we have had some discussions and are talking to the District Attorney’s Association, also victim advocates and those in the General Assembly about exploring some mechanism to look at folks who are close to release and figuring out a group that we can agree on to find some mechanism to get (them) out of prison and reduce our footprint,” he said.
Wetzel said the DOC averages 1,400 releases per month and the institutional population was reduced by 574 in March. Adding parole board members is expected to increase the release rate by 100 or 150, he said, and targeting people beyond their minimum will further speed that up.
Wetzel said most county courts are closed now, reducing the number of commitments coming in. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered all courts in the state to remain closed until April 30, aside from some essential services and exceptions.
As of this week, new arrivals are being routed to SCI Retreat near Wilkes-Barre, which had been slated to close earlier this year. The location was chosen as the arrival hub due to its low population and the ability to quarantine groups for the
14-day COVID-19 gestation period in 14 separate areas.
Wetzel said there is no specific target number for population reduction, but even if new mechanisms were in place and
1,000 people were eligible, that number would not be released because the state will still have to ensure a home plan is established and medical continuity is in place, especially if the immunocompromised population is targeted as a priority.
Wetzel said the mental atmosphere and angst at state prisons mirrors that of the outside world – for both prisoners and staff – but he has gotten feedback that the population understands and appreciates the steps DOC is trying to take.
“We’re trying to be cognizant of it,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons why we tried to delay going to a full quarantine like that as much as possible, because we didn’t want to ratchet it up, but I think the best antidote to that is accurate and timely information, and trying to keep that connection to the community. …I think one of the general framings we’re trying to do is in this case, us versus them, ‘them’ is the virus and we’re really trying to get through this and defeat this crisis we’re dealing with.”
The Pennsylvania Department of Health announced
962 additional cases of COVID-19 and 11 new deaths in the state Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases to 5,805 with 74 deaths. Delaware County has a total of 390 positive cases and eight deaths.