Madison Kwiecinski 

News Editor 

Mvk5945@psu.edu 

Throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, incarcerated individuals have often had to experience prolonged periods of isolation that would not typically be experienced under their sentence. This has stemmed from a variety of reasons, ranging from high COVID-19 case surges to understaffed prisons not being able to accommodate the number of incarcerated people who reside there with social distancing. 

It was recently announced that Pennsylvania is once again halting in-person visitations at state prisons for the entire month of February. A staffing shortage induced by the Coronavirus is cited as the reason for the February isolation period. 

The states Acting Corrections Secretary George Little has stated that quarantine requirements have increasingly required voluntary and mandatory overtime for staff that he considers to be unsustainable. In order to facilitate visitations inside the state correctional facility a higher number of workers need to be there then is necessary or when inmates are confined to their cell or other common spaces. Therefore, when staffing numbers drop, there are not enough people to allow inmates to be able to have visitors or see their loved ones. 

In March of 2020, the prison system implemented a state-wide quarantine period, which prevented in-person visitation until May of 2021. Now, only nine months later, the ban on visitations is reinstated after inmates previously went over a year without outside contact. 

According to AP News, nearly 90 percent of inmates in PA are vaccinated against COVID-19. Additionally, there have been more than 14,000 inmate coronavirus cases and 155 deaths within the system that houses approximately 36,000 prisoners. They also cite that among state prison staff, approximately less than half have received their coronavirus vaccine.  

The Correctional Department has explained that the staffing shortage should not cause educational or recreational programming to be halted on a statewide scale, but that these may need to be adjusted at individual programs across the state, depending on staffing in the area. In place of in-person visitation free video visits are going to be expanded, and cable will be free in inmates cells until the end of February.