This letter was written by a person incarcerated at Delano.
This rollercoaster has also affected the contact with family. I miss my visits with my parents. It’s been hard not being able to hug them and share that space in visiting with them. On top of that I worry about them because they’re elderly and they have my sisters and grandkids living with them.
The youth think they’re invincible. So it worries me that they will end up getting sick and that my whole immediate family will get sick. Not being able to see them makes it that much harder.
I used to be at another institution where we were able to received 15 second videos from family. Emails, pictures directly into a jpay tablet through a kiosk machine. The correspondence was faster because we could email back and forth with anyone that programmed here.
I believe that if it was available in all prisons that it would help alleviate the stress. I know from experience that it does help with communication with family and friends. Especially the kids that don’t have the time or patience to sit down and write.
An email is just another text to them and I know for me it had opened a line of communication with the new generation in my family. Now I don’t hear from them unless I call.
I also miss my visits with the only friend that used to visit me. I finally got to feel the saying that goes like this, “You never know what you have until it’s gone.” I miss the warm embrace and kiss of my friend.
I have not been worried about my safety so much as my family’s well-being. Their health is what has me worried. I have been lucky not to get as sick and it’s not because of the measures that this institution has taken.
If anything I think the measures have only been super spreaders and a big disruptor to our lives and program. We could have been quarantine in our own cells without being bounced around and maybe it wouldn’t had spread as fast.
So as of right now I am just not settling in or getting too comfortable in the cell I am in, because I know that sooner or later the bouncing around will start all over again. The COVID-19 pandemic continues.
This is how I have been dealing with this. By keeping in mind that I have no control of what the institution decides to do with us on a daily basis. So instead of being bitter by getting upset, it’s better to go along with it, and make the best of it by thinking positive.
