HARRISBURG, Pa. — Even as vaccines become available in prisons and county jails, a majority of inmates are choosing not to get one.
Jails are known as COVID-19 hotspots where the virus can spread through communal spaces and shared cells.
Yet at Lancaster and Dauphin County Prisons, which both held their first vaccine clinic this week, only about one quarter of inmates volunteered to be vaccinated.
At Lancaster County Prison, 163 of the nearly 700 inmates got vaccinated on Tuesday, according to Warden Cheryl Steberger.
At Dauphin County Prison, about 220 people signed up but only 150 people ended up getting vaccinated on Wednesday out of more than 900 inmates, according to Director of Corrections Brian Clark.
“We had availability to actually vaccinate every inmate, but we did not have full compliance,” Clark said. “That’s what we’re seeing at most correctional facilities, probably about 20, 25 percent of the inmates participating.”
Hershey Pharmacy provided the vaccines to Dauphin County Prison. Employees of the pharmacy say there isn’t one clear reason why vaccine hesitancy is so strong among inmates.
“We’re hearing everything from ‘It’s too new. I don’t want to put something in my body that hasn’t been around long enough,’ to the conspiracy theories with microchips and DNA manipulation,” said Chad Blannett, the pharmacy’s director of marketing.
County jails have comparatively lower vaccination rates than state prisons. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, 54.5 percent of inmates in state prisons have received at least one vaccine, with 52 percent fully vaccinated.
In an effort to boost vaccination among inmates in county jails, officials are considering incentives.
Dauphin County Prison may offer vaccinated inmates first priority for in-person family visitation when it reopens sometime in May.
At Cumberland County Prison, vaccination is already a requirement for certain programs.
“For work release, inmates must be vaccinated if they want to participate in that program,” said Samantha Krepps, communications director for Cumberland County. She added that 20 to 25 of the prison’s roughly 200-inmate population are in the work release program.
The pandemic shut down many daily aspects of life in jail, like recreation time and education programs.
Most county jails are still following strict COVID mitigation protocols. Officials said they hope to slowly add those activities back as more inmates are vaccinated.
