Episode 2: Prisons, drugs and inmates’ rights

A look back at a month of major changes in the PA Corrections Department.

• Katie Meyer
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Katie Meyer was WITF’s Capitol Bureau Chief from 2016-2020. While at WITF, she covered all things state politics for public radio stations throughout Pennsylvania. Katie came to Harrisburg by way of New York City, where she worked at Fordham University’s public radio station, WFUV, as an anchor, general assignment reporter, and co-host of an original podcast. A 2016 graduate of Fordham, she earned several awards for her work at WFUV, including four 2016 Gracies.
  
  Katie is a native New Yorker, though she originally hails from Troy, a little farther up the Hudson River. She can attest that the bagels are still pretty good there.
  
  WITF's Capitol Bureau Chief Desk is partially funded through generous gifts made in the memory of Tony May through the Anthony J. May Memorial Fund.
  
  For more information about Tony May, click here.

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In late August, the state Department of Corrections locked down all 25 of its prisons. Officials reported that dozens of staff members were getting sick—something they ultimately pinned on exposure to powerful synthetic drugs that were being snuck into facilities.

During the almost two-week lockdown, visits, mail and most movement of inmates were halted.

Before it was over, the DOC had a whole slate of new, tougher regulations to cut down on smuggling. They were drafted, codified, and enforced at a speed that corrections officials have called “unprecedented.”

With all these changes has come backlash, especially from groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, which routinely litigates on behalf of incarcerated people.

The ACLU has raised questions about whether all these security updates are warranted, and they’re especially concerned about legal mail—to the point where they’re in the middle of filing a lawsuit.

In this podcast, we’ll hear from the major parties in the situation: Corrections Secretary John Wetzel, ACLU PA Legal Director Vic Walczak, and one man who has been experiencing the new rules firsthand, as a visitor to his incarcerated fiancée.