State Corrections Department Secretary John Wetzel said yesterday that the statewide prison system’s lockdown should be completely lifted by next week if it is determined that the number of new exposures to smuggled synthetic drugs and other contraband continues to fall.
A week ago today, Wetzel ordered the lockdown after more than thirty corrections staff members were sickened at ten state prisons. Some of those staff members were taken to hospitals after the exposure, and some had Narcan administered to them.
Over the weekend, some of the restrictions were eased. Inmates were permitted to leave their cells and the shower schedules resumed. Wetzel said yesterday that it had been “about a day-and-a-half” without a new exposure, and if that trend continued, out-of-cell time would gradually be increased and the system would return to normal operations. That also would mean the resumption of visitations and the restoration of general mail service. It’s believed the contraband made its way into the prison system by mail.
The Somerset and Greene County state prisons have been especially troublesome. According to the daily incident log, the seven most recent exposures have been at those two facilities. The latest happened on Saturday at SCI Greene, but it has not yet been determined that it was drug-related. A staff member got sick after entering a broom closet to conduct inventory.
