PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Pennsylvania state prisons will limit visitation for any inmates who aren't vaccinated.
Starting on Monday, inmates in state prisons will be assigned to housing units based on their vaccination status.
All in-person visitation for unvaccinated inmates will be suspended.
Video visits will be provided at no cost, and the Department of Corrections said they will install more video visit terminals in unvaccinated units.
Corrections officials stressed they are not limiting visitation based on the vaccine status of the visitor, but rather the status of the inmate.
They said the goal is to protect the 21% of unvaccinated inmates from exposure, while allowing the 78% of inmates who are vaccinated to have a more normal environment.
In-person visitation had been suspended for all inmates until earlier this summer.
Department of Corrections Spokesman Ryan Tarkowski said this not an easy decision, but the goal is to protect the most vulnerable.
Like all other state employees, corrections officers and other prison staff are not required to be vaccinated.
The Department of Corrections said cases in prisons remain low, but they say there's been an uptick at State Correctional Institution – Phoenix in Montgomery County, which has 31 of the 63 reported cases across all state prisons.
