What prisons are like during COVID lockdown: interview with a Pennsylvania incarcerated worker
By Joe Piette posted on December 27, 2020
Philadelphia
Since the start of November 2020, more than 3,000 incarcerated workers and at least 1,200 guards and staff have tested positive for COVID-19 in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PA DOC). Since last March, at least 58 people behind DOC bars have died from the pandemic, the majority of those deaths in the last six weeks.
On Dec. 21, Workers World interviewed Bryant Arroyo, imprisoned at State Correctional Institute (SCI) Frackville, on what he’s experiencing during this massive COVID-19 outbreak.
Bryant Arroyo: So what I want to say is that this whole department is really in shambles, from the top down. As you know from our former interview, we had discussed this facility was most likely the last to have any cases of COVID. We didn’t have any for the past seven to eight months. And what people need to understand, central office [PA DOC HQ] became aware that this facility was negative for any COVID cases, which you would think would be something that is commendable. And you would recognize the fact that that’s exactly how you wanted the rest of your other institutions to be. But there is a key factor in this, that since they didn’t have any cases, they opened up the floodgates to other institutions to fill up this facility with individuals that were positive and transferred from other hotspots in order to get federal funding. The only way that they would get federal funding is if they had positive cases of COVID.