Joseph Darius Jaafari of Spotlight PA
Families of those incarcerated in Pennsylvania's state prison system say the Corrections Department is keeping them in the dark about their loved ones' coronavirus diagnoses and, in some cases, deaths.
HARRISBURG — Yvonne Newkirk would talk to her 60-year-old brother Edward Ball on the phone almost every day. He was serving time at a state prison in Luzerne County, where he would also write to her every week. Then, in mid-November, all contact ended.
After three weeks of silence, Newkirk was desperate, and asked prison officials where he was housed, SCI-Dallas, for help. But staff there refused to give her answers, citing a federal act meant to protect a person’s private medical information.