As COVID-19 spreads, advocates ask Pa. Supreme Court to release vulnerable youth from detention centers, jails

For two weeks, the 16-year-old was locked in a cell at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Delaware County, in what the staff called “quarantine" but looked and felt like solitary confinement.

Caleb Campbell of Upper Chichester was allowed out of the cell — where he was being held awaiting trial — just one hour each day. He could shower and make a phone call. That’s how he told his mother that he had been exposed to a staff member who may have COVID-19.

There was not enough soap or sanitizer at the jail to keep safe, Caleb said, and there were no masks for him to use as he cleaned the juvenile unit for $10 a shift.