PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A group of Philadelphia-area state lawmakers stood outside of SCI Chester today, calling out Gov. Tom Wolf for his failure to release inmates most vulnerable to COVID-19.
"We call on you because we believe people's lives are at stake — and we believe that you care," Sen. Sharif Street, 3rd Dist., said.
Street joined a group of Senate and House lawmakers, activists, and families of incarcerated people to demand that Wolf step up action on the executive order that would give reprieve to hundreds of low risk inmates.
"Lead with courage. Lead with urgency, and get it done," said one speaker.
The Governor's Reprieve Program was announced in April with a goal of releasing 1,200 inmates, but in reality, only 103 got a reprieve under the program. According to the Department of Corrections website, 110 inmates have died of COVID-19 while in Pennsylvania facilities. The lawmakers say 90% of those who died in DOC custody last year were over age 50.
Kris Henderson of the Amistad Law Project says too many have gotten a death sentence because of the governor's inaction.
"People like Bruce Norris," they said, "who, after over 40 years of incarceration, had been recommended by the Board of Pardons for communication and had been waiting for the governor's signature to come home."
Last month, 32 Democratic lawmakers signed a letter to the governor demanding that he take action on his promise to free the most COVID-19-vulnerable and elderly, and other low-risk inmates, to help make prisons safer.
In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for the governor issued the following statement via email:
"The governor's reprieve process was a valuable tool used at the beginning of the pandemic as an attempt to decrease our prison population. Since March 2020, we have now seen a population reduction of over 7,000 inmates, and therefore it is time to find a permanent legislative fix. Secretary Wetzel has been very clear in the past and he has testified that his preference is not to continue the current reprieve program, for one, it does not give inmates credit for their time served on the street. He believes there should be a legislative solution that would create a safe responsible mechanism to get people out of prison and further reduce the population. Legislation and medical parole fixes this problem."
Currently, legislation is pending. However, the lawmakers who spoke out at SCI Chester expressed doubt that Republican lawmakers would vote to approve the proposed laws.
According to the DOC website, there are currently more than 37,000 individuals in state prisons.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story mistakenly spelled Kris Henderson's name and used incorrect pronouns.
