The COVID-19 outbreak Pa. doesn’t want you to know about | Opinion
Updated Dec 30, 2020;
Posted Dec 30, 2020
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.
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By Patricia Vickers
Every time several days go by and I haven’t heard from my son I feel terrified. I can’t help but think of the horror stories I hear from my friends who also have incarcerated loved ones, which are happening with alarming frequency.
Just the other day I was talking to someone who hadn’t heard from her brother in two weeks. Every time she called the prison they gave her the run-around, telling her to call this person and call that person, or saying, “I can’t give you that information.” After two weeks of calling, she was told her brother had COVID-19 and was at a hospital on a ventilator. She was his only living relative, and his power-of-attorney.