Some Philly jail locks can be easily disabled, staff warn, as violence continues Samantha Melamed, The Philadelphia Inquirer On March 12, two prisoners at the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center “breached” their cell doors — and they and their cellmates all dived into a brawl that resulted in minor injuries, according to an internal report obtained by The Inquirer. Staff pepper-sprayed them and returned them to their cells — where one of the men broke out of his cell again, an hour later, to fight a different prisoner. The lock mechanism was one of many concerns cited by staff, prisoners, and advocates at a heated City Council hearing Monday regarding the state of the city jails in the pandemic. They also warned of deteriorating building conditions, inadequate staffing, scant protections against the spread of the coronavirus, and a lack of contact tracing when staff are infected — all as the jail population has risen to its highest point since the pandemic began.