Coronavirus Pennsylvania: Inmates Making Face Masks, Other COVID-19 Prevention Items For Department Of Corrections Employees, Inmates
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Pennsylvania inmates are now making cloth masks and other COVID-19 prevention items for the Department of Corrections employees and prisoners. The inmates are working 12-hour shifts, six days a week to make the items.
"As part of the Department of Corrections preparedness planning, in mid-March, I directed all of our employees and inmates to wear masks," said Pennsylvania Corrections Department Secretary John Wetzel. "We didn't want to take from the community supply, so we began making the masks in-house at several of our state prisons."
Pennsylvania Correctional Industries says they have made 185,136 masks, which have been distributed to DOC facilities and offices.
DOC employees were each given three masks each and each inmate was given two.
They have also made 36,000 bars of anti-bacterial soap, 255 gowns, and 1,620 packs of PDF-45 disinfectant.