This letter was written by a person incarcerated at Valley State.
Hello PrisonPandemic,
Sorry it has taken so long to get back to you. Times have been strange lately; not just here in prison, but out there in the real world for you and yours and also my family. Everyone is okay just jumping through the hurdles of this pandemic and all the stuff going on in the world today. First, I want to say thank you for reaching out to me and taking the time to read my story.
I’ll keep it simple, and I try to help you understand how our lives have been just thrown into a black hole, with some light starting to peak its head in. It all started about 16 months ago, damn it was even further than that. It was like overnight CDC thought, “Damn, this shit is real.” When that happened it was already too late here at Valley State.
See here we are jammed eight people in a cell. A cell which is meant for only four people. And mind you not everyone’s cleaning habits or hygiene up to par. So what they thought was a good plan was shutting down normal program, which was all four buildings out to you only function with your building, which end up being only your halfway. Not only were they not prepared, but they moved their feet slow as hell when the shit hit the fan.
When people started testing positive, instead of leaving them in their house and just quarantining that cell they started sending people all over the prison. It reminded me about a time when I was a kid and another kid had the chickenpox. So my mother took me (as did other mothers) to the kid’s house so I could expose to the chickenpox so I could get it and let my body build immunity to it.
That’s what it seemed like CDC was doing. They wanted us to get and see what happened. Since I caught COVID (on November 2020) I’ve moved five plus times. I finally got vaccinated (April 20, 2021) however I don’t think a lot of these COs have gotten the shots.
My family has been wonderful throughout this whole situation. I have had five video visit, which are good, but when I go to the visit room for the video visit they have 20 plus computers on both sides and they are never full. However you still have to wait 30 days for another visit. I’ve been trying for a visit and a hug from my son and daughter.
Those visits give me that boost I need to help me get through my rough days. Only time I feel that they have this COVID stud under control, is when they shut down program completely, no movement, no nothing at all. At that point there is no contact so nothing can happen at all. So hopefully this helps, please write me back and let me know if there is anything else.
Best wishes.
