The bottom floor of Dauphin County Prison is where inmates are sent to be punished. And it was getting out of control down there.

Smoke was everywhere. Inmates were smoking synthetic marijuana at all hours of the day. Prison leaders tried to stop it. The jail took away the inmates’ Ipads, legal papers and even some of their clothing. But the smoke kept filling the cells. Some staff said the drugs were being smuggled in by other employees.

The jail’s leaders did something shocking even to the people who knew about how many people had recently died in the jail:

They turned off the lights and heat to the entire floor. And kept it off for 17 days.

In episode 5 of “Death County, Pa.” we learn why. Jail leaders believed that prisoners were using the outlets and light sockets to light up. But this crackdown came in the cold days of December in central Pennsylvania.

“What do you do? You sit there in your head all day,” said one inmate. “Now you tell me: is that good for somebody that’s already mentally distressed? It can’t be. I think they were just using it as a tool to make us suffer, ‘cause they couldn’t control the contraband in their jail, so we suffer for it.”

This wasn’t the last time the power would go out at the jail. And when it happened again—something surprising happened.

In episode five, local leaders start to bring change to the prison where 19 people have died, many under suspicious circumstances, between 2019 and 2024.

“Death County, Pa.” is co-produced by PennLive and Wondery and hit the top of Apple’s podcast charts two days after it was widely released. A new episode is being released every week.

Wondery has developed a number of award-winning, long-form podcast series, some of which have gone on to be produced into TV series.

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.