The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections announced Monday morning that as of last night, it had implemented a statewide inmate quarantine in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said in a written statement that “quarantining the entire system is in the best interest of our employees and our inmates.”
He called it “essentially forced social distancing” and said, “We must take this step to contain the virus to one facility and to keep it from spreading throughout the system.”
The first case of coronavirus in a state prison was reported as SCI-Phoenix in Montgomery County over the weekend.
There are 25 state prisons across the state with more than 44,000 inmates.
In the statement, Wetzel said that inmates will be fed in their cells, and they will be afforded out-of-cell time for video visits, phone calls, access to the law library, as well as being provided with in-cell programming. All inmate movement will be controlled to conform to social distancing recommendations.
Speaking during a press conference on Monday, Wolf noted there was hospital equipment, including ventilators, on-site at each state prison.
He said only time would tell whether the supply was sufficient.
Morning Call reporter Ford Turner can be reached at fturner@mcall.com
