This letter was written by a person incarcerated at Calipatria.
To: PrisonPandemic project,
Well for me being inside while the world is burning up with a virus is so scary. Watching the news everyday the numbers rising of deaths and people infected. Hoping and prayin’ my family doesn’t catch it, or should I say it catch my family.
See being inside you’re cut off from the outside world that seeing or hearing about the pandemic on TV It just doesn’t seem real. The only contact we have to the outside world is two hours and forty-five minutes on the phone spread across a seven day period. 15 minutes each day and not guaranteed a phone call each day.
And that was before COVID. Now you’re lucky to get two calls a week.
They (the prison) have tested us not that often. I’ve been tested about six times in the last ten months. I recently had tested positive with COVID-19. They have no medicine to give us they just isolate us the best they can and check our vitals two times a day while we’re quarantined for 14 days. If you become dehydrated they have Pedialyte. But for someone that is severe they send them to a hospital nearby.
I don’t feel safe from COVID because the COs are not being vigilant while off-duty social distancing, masking up, or self-cleansing.
It’s hard on a lot of us that is used to seeing our families weekly or even monthly. They have developed a video visit option once every 30 days, but it’s hard to get a video visit when you’re in constant quarantine. But there’s nothing we as inmates can do about it. Me personally, I write poetry and talk with my cellie about life. That’s what I do to help me cope with everything that’s going on right now.
P.S. Excuse my handwriting. Hope I can keep in contact with you guys. Thank you for this chance to get my story out.
Thank you!
