COVID-19 Virus and SCI's/Updated! All visits suspended

[ronsgal]

anyone know if greene is on lockdown

was talking to bf yesterday and he mentioned greene will be going on lockdown on monday because of this virus. Has anyone else hear anything about it

[egs]

From the DOC Website [3/11/20]

Department of Corrections Begins Screening Employees, Visitors at SCI Phoenix

Harrisburg, PA – Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel announced, effective tomorrow and until further notice, officials at the State Correctional Institution (SCI) at Phoenix will initiate an enhanced screening process for all visitors and employees. Anyone exhibiting symptoms, who has had recent contact with anyone presumed positive for COVID-19 or anyone who denies being screened will be prohibited from entering the facility.

"We understand the value of inmate visits, and we also understand that it's likely that COVID-19 will eventually be present at one of our facilities -- that is why we are enhancing our screening processes and sanitization statewide," said Wetzel. "For those with an increased risk, we have developed an enhanced screening protocol that includes a questionnaire, taking one's temperature and asking a series of questions. We are monitoring our entire system and individual facilities daily, and we are taking steps to protect our employees and our inmates -- a large number of whom are elderly and vulnerable."

DOC and SCI Phoenix officials have decided to take these measures because the prison is located in Montgomery County where there are active COVID-19 cases. This decision also was made due to the large numbers of prison employees, volunteers, visitors, elderly inmates, inmates who are immunocompromised, parole violators, new commits and internal DOC inmate transfers.

As other areas of the state begin to see additional cases, the DOC may decide to take these steps at its other facilities, including state prisons, community corrections centers, parole regions/districts/sub-offices and headquarters.

Recently DOC officials directed staff to increase the frequency of cleaning/sanitizing high-use areas within offices and facilities, along with ensuring adequate access to cleaning material and hand soap for all.

DOC officials also this week began sending daily COVID-19 emails to all employees to keep everyone informed.
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Today [3/12/2020] the DOC announced that all SCI visitor buses from Pennsylvania Prison Society and other vendors will be suspended at this time.

[rbswifey]

For staff and inmate protection from COVID-19, the DOC has suspended all visits effective March 13 for at least two weeks. Only staff, vendors and contractors will be allowed to enter any of the state prisons—pending the results of a screening.

This info can be found on the PA DOC website. I am unable to post the link because I don’t have 25 posts here yet.

[patchouli]

I've created a new sub-forum for Covid -19 (Corona Virus) information specific to PA & moved your thread here

Here is a link to the PA DOC page:

https://www.cor.pa.gov/Pages/AlertDetails.aspx

[rbswifey]

Thank you

[bobble60]

Prison Society Official Visitors still have visiting access. Concerns about specific inmates can be directed to them.

[Bubgirl]

My husband informed me that commissary spending limit increased to $100 at Rockview. They will be able to "panic shop" like everyone else is case of a lockdown/quarantine.

[Suzique]

My husband is at Chester and they did the same thing there. He's expecting to be locked down for at least 2 weeks. Said they've been cleaning and scrubbing everything.

[bobble60]

It's important to be accurate: There are no lockdowns due to COVID-19 at this time. Inmate movement has not been stopped. There have been no diagnosed cases.

The DOC is reducing the risk of inmate exposure. They are screening all staff, vendors and contractors via questionnaire and temperature checks -- just as they are at the White House. They initially thought they would do this with all visitors but followed the Governor's advice instead. This drastically cuts the risk.

Why? First, they're reducing the number of potentially exposed persons from entering the facility by more than half. (The number of staff versus the number of daily visitors).

Second, while staff are necessary, they are easier to screen and monitor because the prison medical department can handle that smaller group. They are also much more likely to self-report because there is no negative consequence (paid sick time versus being denied a visit.)

Third, staff will better maintain a healthy spacing. Visitors want to embrace, kiss or touch. They sit close to the inmate for an hour or more. Staff do just the opposite. In the event that a staff person is unknowingly carrying the virus, the risk of transmittal is far lower than it it was a visitor.

The key to this quarantine model is to hopefully prevent a single case, and while people are correct that it's not a guarantee, this is the best way to make the odds most favorable. At the same time, locking the men and women in their cells is not necessary because the facility can remain confident that there isn't a single case inside. Once they lose that confidence, the lockdowns may happen to enforce "social distancing" by reducing the quarantine perimeter from the outside fence to the individual cells.

Supporting the DOC in this step, just as we should all support the efforts in our communities to reduce spread through distancing, helps us all work together. It'll feel like a long two weeks for some people, but in the end it's in the best interest of every man and woman inside a prison fence.

As an official visitor, I still postponed my visits for the next two weeks because they weren't of an urgent nature. The Prison Society has also asked its OVs who are over the age of sixty or who have a chronic medical condition to help from home and let the less-vulnerable OVs make visits.

As I type this, only one facility in all of Pennsylvania is addressing a confirmed exposure. Let's hope it stays this way.

[smiles844]

I was so hoping to make it down for one more visit before this happened-knew it was only a matter of time... Honestly, as much as I hate that I can't visit, I am grateful for this as it does limit their exposure and potential for the virus...inmates are a vulnerable population because of the closed quarters...anything to keep them safer! Thanks for all the updates and info Bobble-always so helpful and appreciated!

[kiwi86]

Is this going to hold up people being released for parole? My loved one doesn’t have a release date yet and is still waiting on his interstate transfer to be started. Are they not going to start this now?

[bobble60]

This should not affect releases on parole in a direct fashion, but as more and more government offices either close or face reduced staff, we should expect lags to start appearing. Like any other government office, they're trying to do more and more from "out in the field" than in the offices. We can't predict the overall impact of these changes, but I believe we should prepare for delays.

[Suzique]

My husband said they were told that the facility (Chester) are trying to avoid a lockdown, but they have upped the commissary limit & the staff is masked and gloved during their shift. One nice thing is they removed the "one 15 minute call per hour restriction", my hubby's been able to call a few times right in a row if no one is waiting for the phones.