Pa. prison staff call for harsher punishments after spike in assaults at SCI-Camp Hill

The PA State Corrections Officers Association overstated the severity of the problem in a news release but stands by its call for policy changes.

• Jordan Wilkie/WITF
  BioRecent Stories

  

  As the democracy reporter for WITF, I will cover any kind of story that has to do with how we govern ourselves. That will include doing a lot of election coverage about how to access the ballot, how public officials administer elections, the technology used to run and secure elections, and the laws that govern it all.
  
  My work will also include accountability coverage for elected officials that use their positions to then undermine democratic institutions, like the legislators that voted against the certification of the presidential election results on January 6, 2021. If that weren’t enough, I foresee covering some local government decisions, fights over public records and transparency, and some candidate coverage around the major elections. As seen in my coverage of immigrant of LGBTQ+ communities, I also report on the consequences of elections for minority groups.

 Carolyn Kaster / AP Photo

FILE PHOTO: A solitary corrections officer looks out from a tower at one corner of the state prison in Camp Hill.

Assaults against staff increased 44% through the first five months of 2026 at a state prison in Cumberland County, according to Department of Corrections data.

Through May 2026, SCI-Camp Hill saw 26 assaults on staff, with five of them considered a “major assault.” During the same period last year, those numbers were 18 and one.

In a widely reported news release Monday, Pa. State Corrections Officers Association misinterpreted the data and overstated the increase in violent incidents. The Department sends the monthly reports to the Association’s president Michael Ohler.

“I misinterpreted the numbers that the department shared with me, but there’s no doubt that there’s still an increase in staff assaults at SCI Camp Hill,” Ohler told WITF.

He said he is especially concerned about where the assaults are occurring. Historically, it is more common to have staff assaults in the higher security “restricted housing unit,” most commonly spitting or throwing objects from incarcerated people, Ohler said. But the data show a sharp increase in assaults on staff in the general population units. So far this year, they’re happening at twice the rate as last year.

From a sheer numbers standpoint, that makes sense, as there are more people incarcerated and more staff working in the “gen pop” units. But Ohler said the seven staff assaults on those units in April and May caught his attention. Data from the Department of Corrections show 2,232 people were held at SCI-Camp Hill at the end of June, though the information doesn’t break out how many people are in each level of security.

It’s not just the data. Ohler says he hears from prison employees too.

Courtesy of Michael Ohler

Photo of Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association Michael Ohler.

“I may have misinterpreted the numbers that the department sent me, but according to the staff there at SCI-Camp Hill, violence is up,” he said.

Though assaults on staff are up, the total number of violent incidents are comparable to last year. In Monday’s news release, Ohler misstated that total incidents were on track to double those from last year.

When WITF found the error, Ohler stood by his call for four policy changes meant to curb violence in the facility. He called for longer lockdowns of entire units after incidents, suspensions of visitation and other inmate privileges “until comprehensive searches have been completed,” more extensive searches and a re-evaluation of prison policy.

The Department of Corrections has a zero-tolerance policy for violence, according to a statement from spokesperson Maria Bivens.

In 2016, the Department implemented its Violence Reduction Initiative. Counter to Ohler’s claims, Bivens wrote in an email that the Department addresses serious incidents “consistently and appropriately.”

“The VRI is a targeted response to a specific violent incident,” Bivens wrote. “It is not intended as group punishment for inmates who were not involved in the incident.”

That approach runs counter to Ohler’s call for longer unit-wide shutdowns.

In his news release, Ohler noted the “recent stabbing of a female corrections officer in the face” and criticized what he described as “only a brief lockdown.” His release raised concerns about prison staff having enough time to search for additional weapons or to complete an investigation.

The Department stated that facility staff “determined the assault was an isolated incident.”

Help make trusted journalism available to everyone. Support WITF today.

Give Now