Family members of those who are incarcerated in Pennsylvania state prisons told Spotlight PA they are kept in the dark as their loved ones face life-threatening illness and, in some cases, die.

That's what happened to Yvonne Newkirk, whose 60-year-old brother, Edward Ball, was an inmate at SCI-Dallas. 

After two days of nonstop calls from Newkirk, a sympathetic nurse explained that her brother was hospitalized and intubated after a positive COVID-19 diagnosis weeks earlier. But the hospital where she suspected he was being treated told her she needed to get answers from the prison.

And then, she said, the prison wouldn't provide more information.

On Dec. 11, the hospital called Newkirk to tell her that her brother was dead.

THE CONTEXT: Families are stuck in bureaucratic limbo as they try to get information from hospitals and the Department of Corrections, according to the executive director of the Pennsylvania Prison Society.

Corrections officials contend a federal law limits what private medical information they can release. But an Arizona-based attorney who specializes in patient privacy requirements said correctional facilities, which often provide care similar to a hospital, should release information to family members.

And Newkirk said the state didn't provide her information even though she was her brother's emergency contact and power of attorney. This problem is all the more pressing as prisons have seen a surge in coronavirus cases, which the department is struggling to contain.

On Tuesday, the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association called for a lockdown. Vaccines will help eventually. But the state's vaccination plan puts prisoners and corrections staff in the 1B phase, behind health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities.

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