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Just as deaths were piling up at a Pennsylvania county jail in recent years, the prison started making it even harder for the public to find out what was going on inside.
The warden started listening in on phone calls between prisoners and PennLive reporter Josh Vaughn. And then the Dauphin County jail, located just outside of Harrisburg, stopped providing information about violent physical altercations.
But even as the jail was making it harder to get information from the inside, a push for change started to gain momentum from the outside.
That’s according to a new episode of “Death County, PA”, a podcast co-produced by PennLive and Wondery, which was released Monday. The podcast hit the top of Apple’s podcast charts two days after it was widely released. A new episode is being released every week. This week’s episode highlights problems with health care services inside the jail and some of the forces working to bring about change on the outside.
Justin Douglas, the pastor of a local church, decided to challenge a hand-selected member of Dauphin County’s “good old boys” club for a seat on the county commission, which oversees the prison.
Douglas made prison reform his signature campaign issue, even though some political advisors told him it was not a winning issue in a conservative area. Against the will of his political consultants, Douglas spent nearly half of his campaign funds on a giant billboard with a small photo of him but giant letters that read: “18 prisoners dead since 2019. Vote for change on November 7.”
Douglas then formed an alliance with Lamont Jones, who lost a 21-year-old family member in Dauphin County’s jail, as Jones decided to run for Harrisburg city council. Jones already had success pushing for change inside the jail as part of the public advisory board. After Jones’ advocacy, the jail stopped charging prisoners fees as high as $25 per day while they were incarcerated. The money was due upon their release and Jones argued it made them more likely to have to go back to a life of crime.
The first few episodes of “Death County, Pa.” focused on the deaths of two other prisoners who died under suspicious circumstances.
Wondery has developed a number of award-winning, long-form podcast series, some of which have gone on to be produced into TV series.
PennLive is a news site run by Advance Local, one of the largest media groups in the United States, operating in 20 cities.
Wondery created the series in collaboration with PennLive, a news site run by Advance Local, one of the largest media groups in the United States, operating in 20 cities.
