Pa. Amish men told they needed a computer to set up visit with jailed relative. Department of Corrections clarified that’s not the case

• By Dan Nephin, LNP/lancasteronline

The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections says it helps people who lack computer access schedule visits with inmates, though the agency prefers that visitors use its online scheduling system.

The clarification comes after LNP | LancasterOnline ran a letter in Thursday’s paper in which Wayne D. Lawton of Elizabethtown said he was told that a prison “does not allow visits to be set up for Amish people, unless it is done through a computer.”

Lawton asked, “Isn’t this a form of discrimination?”

LNP spoke to Lawton, 86, on Thursday, and he said someone in his church was able to get the visits arranged for September, but that it was a hassle because the Amish inmate’s three brothers don’t regularly use telephones. Lawton is pastor at Cedar Hill Community Church in Elizabethtown.

LNP asked the corrections department about the situation.

Spokesperson Maria Bivens said she couldn’t speak to the case at hand specifically, noting that visitation had been arranged.

“In general, the primary method for scheduling in-person and video visitation is online for the safety and security of staff, inmates, and anyone who is in our facilities,” Bivens said in an email. “However, a staff person in the superintendent’s office and the major at each facility have the ability to schedule the visit on behalf of an approved visitor who does not have online access, such as someone in the situation you describe. Facility personnel provide this type of assistance every day.”

Lawton, when told what the department’s response was, said he wrote the letter to LNP because, “I just sort of felt that there was some discrimination … in forcing people to have or use a computer.”