April 11, 2020
Source/Google Maps
The new program will release vulnerable inmates and those nearing the end of their sentences for temporary home confinement. State Correctional Institution (SCI)-Phoenix in Skippack Township, Montgomery County, where there is a known coronavirus outbreak, is pictured above.
Pennsylvania will release between approximately 1500 to 1800 nonviolent prisoners from its state prisons to slow the spread of coronavirus, officials announced Friday.
Gov. Tom Wolf said in a release that the state's Department of Corrections is establishing a program to release certain incarcerated individuals from prison in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in jails. Officials hope that smaller prison populations will mean that less prisoners and staff contract the coronavirus disease.
The "Temporary Program to Reprieve Sentences of Incarceration" will release inmates serving time for nonviolent sentences and who are within nine months of their scheduled release. Prisoners who are within 12 months finishing their sentence may be released if they are considered at heightened risk from the coronavirus.
“I am pleased to direct the Department of Corrections to begin the process to release vulnerable and non-violent inmates at or nearing their release dates in an organized way that maintains supervision post-release and ensures home and health care plans are in place for all reentrants," said Gov. Wolf in the release.
Vulnerable inmates are specified as those 65 or older, pregnant inmates, those with autoimmune disorders, and those with serious medical conditions or conditions that place them at a higher risk for experiencing coronavirus complications according to the CDC.
Prisoners will be released to home confinement or halfway houses, beginning as early as April 14. Those released will be monitored in the same way that parolees are monitored, officials said.
Wolf's command was enacted under the authority granted to him by the "Pennsylvania Constitution and the Emergency Management Services Code," the governor's release read. The program is similar to ones already announced by states like New Jersey, but comes after talks with Pennsylvania Republicans, who hold a majority in the state Legislature, recently broke down.
Once the temporary order has expired, the governor says that inmates will return to jail to continue serving their sentences.
There are around 45,000 inmates in Pennsylvania's state prisons, according to Fox43.
Coronavirus outbreaks have been reported at state prisons, including SCI-Phoenix in Montgomery County where comedian Bill Cosby is being held. Outbreaks have also been reported at county prisons such as the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Delaware County and Pike County Correctional Facility, where at least two inmates have died as a result of coronavirus complications.
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