CLEARFIELD – Vaccines for COIVID-19 are available for everyone in Clearfield County right now, and the Clearfield County Jail has initiated a program, in conjunction with Penn Highlands Healthcare, to ensure every inmate at CCJ who wants a vaccine can have one.
Warden David Kessling said this is the only facility he is aware of that has taken the initiative to ensure inmates get vaccinated.
He said they contacted PHH to make arrangements, and then spoke to each of the prisoners and made a list of those who want the vaccine.
Thursday, a clinic will be held at the jail for the inmates and also Kessling and another staff member to get their first shots. Kessling said that PHH will come to the jail every month and provide vaccines to other inmates who were not there previously.
Commissioner Dave Glass noted that the county has open appointments for the vaccine and this will not be taking away from other residents in the county, that there is plenty of vaccine for everyone.
Kessling also said that all the staff members who wanted the vaccine have had it, except for himself and the other staff member who are scheduled for Thursday.
The board also discussed a bill from UPMC Altoona for $56,898.50 from 2020 and which the commissioners approved for payment.
It was explained that the incident stemmed from an inmate who had initially visited his primary care physician prior to being placed in CCJ, and the doctor had started treatment on him.
While at CCJ, corrections officers took him to a follow-up appointment where tests were done and the inmate had to be taken to the hospital for an operation, resulting in the bill.
Normally steps are taken to reduce such costs, but this time neither the courts, the jail nor the commissioners were able to do so.
“I think we dropped the ball on this one,” Kessling said, referring to himself and other staff at CCJ, and apologized to the board.
In other business, the board welcomed Heidi Marks-Ibberson as the new deputy warden of operations, noting that she has worked as a corrections officer at the jail for nine years.
The next prison board meeting has been rescheduled to May 11.