HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania's state prisons are stopping in-person visits for the coming month because their staff has been thinned by coronavirus infection.
The halt to visits at all state correctional institutions will begin Thursday and last until Feb. 28, the agency announced Monday.
Free video visits will be expanded, and cable TV in inmates' cells will be free in February.
Acting Corrections Secretary George Little says quarantine requirements have increasingly required voluntary and mandatory overtime that he considers unsustainable.
About 90% of inmates are fully vaccinated.
Among state prison staff, barely half are fully vaccinated. The prison system implemented a statewide quarantine in March 2020, and in-person visits began to resume in May 2021.
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