Editorial: Time for to push harder for vaccines in state prisons
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When it comes to encouraging people to do something they may or may not want to do, there are two time-tested methods: the carrot and the stick.
The covid-19 vaccine is seeing both come into play. The carrots have been everywhere for months. A vaccine card can be the way to a free drink, a free doughnut, a bonus at work or an entry in a big-ticket lottery (if you live somewhere that isn’t Pennsylvania). Now restaurants are saying you can’t come in if you don’t have proof of vaccination and employers are deciding whether you can be hired or fired based on your vaccine status.
But it isn’t just the people walking around in public that are feeling the call of the carrot or the sting of the stick. The people behind bars are, too.
Earlier this year, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections started paying inmates $25 apiece in commissary credit to get their vaccines. The money came from the Inmate General Wellness Fund courtesy of fines and fees, rather than tax money. It worked, with inmates throughout the system hitting 80% vaccination.
But as the delta variant is becoming a bigger and more transmissible presence in the pandemic, DOC is picking up the stick. No, not a literal stick. The punishment in this case is less corporal and more of the time-out, loss-of- privileges variety.
Inmates who aren’t vaccinated aren’t allowed to have visitation in person. Video visits are still an option.
The issue with this is that the inmates don’t seem to be the problem. That 20% number could be smaller, yes, but every population has a portion that are medically unable to be vaccinated.
The vaccination rates for the DOC staff, on the other hand, are almost exactly the opposite of the inmates, with 78% unvaccinated. And unlike the inmates, who can’t come and go, they are free to circulate in the community and come back into the state prisons, possibly bringing the virus with them.
The department isn’t wrong to do what it must to encourage the 7,000 unvaccinated inmates to get their shots. Prisons have been well-documented petri dishes for disease- spread for decades. DOC should do what it can to protect the inmates in their care as well as the visitors.
But it can’t neglect doing the same for the employees, who can be the vector that transports and delivers the virus. Yet a recent Tribune- Review story shows that only 3,500 of those workers are known to be vaccinated and employees are not required to report vaccinations.
The state has not made decisions about requiring vaccines, and that is a much larger, more complicated question that is being wrestled at many different layers of government — federal to municipal.
Allegheny County and the City of Pittsburgh just announced policies requiring vaccines for new hires and demanding unvaccinated current employees wear masks and submit to regular testing. Westmoreland County has not made any decisions yet. School districts and universities are a mixed bag of policies.
At the very least, however, DOC can require its employees to report vaccination so that it has a complete and accurate record of its risks.