Covid Lockdown: A new level of hell

We are currently on lockdown because of Covid. I am also confident that I have now contracted it on at least 3 or 4 occasions. I am concerned about the effects of contacting it multiple times. Here’s a little bit about what it’s like here with the pandemic.

1. Since Christmas, we are getting out once every 2 days for 1 hour. Before the pandemic, we’d get 6 hours every day that we could go outside. Also, we can only use the law library on the day we go outside. That is to say, we have to pick between fighting our case once a week or going outside. At the moment though, that precious 1 hour every second day is spent calling and emailing family. Who knows when I will actually see the sky again.

2. There is no social distancing observed by the officers. They are constantly grouped up, frequently not wearing masks appropriately, or at all. They also pat us down when we go by them. Since no inmate can bring in covid, it’s the staff who are bringing it to us and their unwillingness to observe social distancing makes it that much more likely that inmates will contract it. When we don’t follow the rules and wear masks, they lock us down for the day and sometimes threaten us with violence ("I’ll shoot you in the face" was a recent favorite). The officers also protesting mandatory vaccinations late last year. The prison is also significantly understaffed which is likely a factor as well.

3. No social distancing is possible when I'm stuck in a unit with hundreds of other people and most of that time in an 8X12 cell with another person.

4. The cleaning process is ineffective. We have chemicals which advise to "spray liberally, let sit for 10 min then wipe up." It is very hard to do this when only 3 of the 4 phones are in use and there are 100 people who want to use it in a very limited time frame.

5. Other than GED classes, no other classes are happening. Even these have stopped for the moment. For those in GED classes, the inmates are crammed into a tiny room for hours at a time and again, social distancing is not possible. For those taking classes outside of GED, they have all stopped. These classes are important as they help with rehabilitation as well as give people a chance to earn time off their sentence. This also means years are passing of pure human warehousing with no support in rehabilitation.

6. Medical issues take months instead of weeks to be seen. We are told this is because they must be ever ready for Covid treatment. Personally, this has affected me significantly as I have developed carpal tunnel syndrome and have been in severe pain for over 2 years. After several attempts to see a doctor and being ignored, I saw a neurologist less than 2 months ago who diagnosed me, scheduled me for surgery, etc... I filed a tort claim in Aug 2021 on this matter.

When (not if) we get Covid, there is

• Daily monitoring. There is no medication other than what we can buy off of commissary. That means, if commissary day is Friday and you get sick on Sat... you wait till next Friday to buy cough drops and Ibuprofen. That is assuming you have the money to buy it. There is no treatment unless a respirator is required

• Quarantine. This is 3 weeks, and it is punishment. You can't buy any food, are locked down 24 hours a day, showers 2 times a week, phone once a week. This is worse than ACTUAL punishment: being thrown in the hole. There, we get showers and can buy a little food.

• To transfer from one institution to another, it requires both a quarantine the current location and one at the next. This means a 6-week minimum lock down. Some locations require a transfer center to stop at before the next location, meaning yet another 3-week quarantine.

Their willingness to subject us to the worst they can do both legally and otherwise is so much worse when contrasted with the fact that the staff aren’t required to do a thing to prevent the spread.