Handout from Department of Corrections
Early in January, Angelo Romero sat in his cell at SCI-Smithfield and thought that there would be no way people incarcerated, like himself, would get the COVID-19 vaccine.
“The inmates don’t stand a chance on being vaccinated if it’s going to cost the [Department of Corrections] money,” he wrote in a letter to Spotlight PA.
But to Romero’s surprise along with prisoners’ rights advocates, public health experts, and even other inmates the opposite has happened.
Three out of the state’s 23 prisons have so far offered vaccines to inmates and staff, and the number of inmates who have gotten the vaccine at two of those facilities is upwards of 70% no small feat for a department that, on average, vaccinates just over a quarter of its population for the flu.
. HARRISBURG Early in January, Angelo Romero sat in his cell at SCI-Smithfield and thought there would be no way people incarcerated, like himself, would get the COVID-19 vaccine. “The inmates don’t stand a chance on being vaccinated if it’s going to cost the [Department of Corrections] money,” he wrote in a letter to Spotlight PA. But to Romero’s surprise along with prisoners’ rights advocates, public health experts, and even other inmates the opposite has happened. Three out of the state’s 23 prisons have so far offered vaccines to inmates and staff, and the number of inmates who have gotten the vaccine at two of those facilities is upwards of 70% no small feat for a department that, on average, vaccinates just over a quarter of its population for the flu.
WHYY
By
Joseph Darius Jaafari and Jamie Martines, Spotlight PAMarch 17, 2021
The Pa. Department of Corrections is offering $25 in commissary credit to prisoners who receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and has seen promising results. (Department of Corrections)
This story originally appeared on Spotlight PA.
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Early in January, Angelo Romero sat in his cell at SCI-Smithfield and thought that there would be no way people incarcerated, like himself, would get the COVID-19 vaccine.
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Heading into November of 2020, Pueblo County funeral homes were weathering the storm of the COVID-19 pandemic, navigating a new landscape while continuing to provide services of comfort and closure to Pueblo families saying their final goodbyes to loved ones.
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