Even if an inmate's sentence is not oppressively long, their treatment while incarcerated can still constitute subhuman treatment. Prisons are not medical facilities, but they regularly are forced to deal with mental health problems and care for elderly and terminally ill inmates. Food, if it's even edible, usually lacks enough nutrition for inmates' health to not deteriorate. Plus, with a lack of opportunities to see family, read, or gain skill sets, inmates are placed in buildings which lack any resemblance of the civilized world.
“This month, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections permitted The Appeal to photograph inside SCI Laurel Highlands, a prison in the southwestern part of the state that houses a large population of people who require long-term and personal care. The prison provides skilled nursing, hospice and palliative care for some of the oldest men in the Pennsylvania prison system.“
The Appeal
November 20, 2019
Read More“But Pennsylvania is one of many states that has far too few hospital beds for the mentally ill defendants who need them, leaving people like Elle to languish in jail while they wait for a spot. It has ranked among the worst states when it comes to these wait times, a nationwide problem that experts say may be linked to the downsizing of psychiatric hospitals and inadequate community mental-health resources. “
The Marshall Project
June 6, 2019
Read More“Since late summer, Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections has been rolling out enhanced security measures designed to stop the flow of drugs into prisons. One of those changes included restrictions on book gifts and donations. But after pushback from several inmates’ rights groups and book donors, the department is making changes once again.“
WHYY Pennsylvania
November 4, 2018
Read More“A new policy has put Pennsylvania prisoners’ communications under intense surveillance in the name of stopping contraband drugs. On Sept. 5, the state’s Department of Corrections (DOC) announced that it would be largely restricting mail to prisoners. Effective immediately, all incoming mail would be sent to a private company in Florida, Smart Communications, for scanning into a searchable database. Prisoners would then receive photocopies of the incoming mail—and the originals would be shredded.“
The Appeal
September 24, 2018
Read More“Gov. Wolf, I urge you to visit another prison. Talk with those who have to live in these places for years and decades. Take a ride to Philadelphia, from where most of the DOC's population is drawn, and meet the families who already suffer enough and would break under any additional hardship. Meet with the legal community. Hear about the years of litigation Pennsylvania taxpayers will have to pay for because of these new, unnecessary violations of attorney-client privilege.“
Philadelphia Inquirer
September 21, 2018
Read More“In the past few weeks, protesters have assailed the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections' strict new policies on inmate mail and books, including a $4 million contract with a Florida company to scan and forward incoming mail, and the prohibition of direct donations from organizations like Books Through Bars.“
Philadelphia Inquirer
September 18, 2018
Read More"'The safety and security of our employees is my number one concern,' Secretary Wetzel said. 'Our state prisons, especially those in the western part of the state, have experienced recent incidents in which employees have been sickened and we need to get to the bottom of this issue now'."
Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
August 29, 2018
Read More"The Bureau of Prisons claims that 'solitary confinement does not exist' in the federal prison system and considers placement in the SMU to be 'non-punitive.' It’s a rosy characterization roundly rejected by criminal justice advocates, incarcerated people, and reporters alike; 'USP Lewisburg might be the worst place in the federal prison system,' Justin Peters wrote in Slate in 2013, 'so bad that some inmates there actually dream of being transferred to the famously isolating Supermax facility in Florence, Colorado'."
The Appeal
August 21, 2018
Read More"While sitting idly in jail, Tuzlic was, like other pregnant prisoners, 'frequently hungry and undernourished' due to the 'nutritionally inadequate”'pregnancy diet. The complaint alleged prisoners often were not provided full portions of food or portions were completely missing. They were not given prenatal vitamins or calcium supplements."
Prison Legal News
August 4, 2018
Read More"In Bucks County, 245 out of its 815 inmates are in some kind of drug or alcohol treatment program, attending AA or NA meetings, group therapy or other designated programs, correction officials said. Although about 75 percent of the jail population faces addiction issues, not all of them want treatment, and for the majority of them the programs are voluntary."
WITF Harrisburg
July 12, 2018
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