This letter was written by a person incarcerated at Pelican Bay.
Let me enlighten you a little bit on what’s been happening over here in Pelican Bay! To be completely honest, yes there have been cases of guards, as well as inmates, who’ve caught the COVID-19 virus! Now that they (the CDCR) have gotten a hold on the virus and have pretty much vaccinated everyone in the prison population as well as guards, it’s not as bad as it was a year ago, when this pandemic first hit!
To be honest, if it wasn’t for the guards bringing the virus into the prison, we as a whole would have never gotten sick! Let me explain: Guards as well as other employees of the CDCR come to work daily and unknowingly to whomever contracts the virus; brings it to work with them!
They in turn, infect the rest of the population, and if it wasn’t for them coming back and forth, to and from work; we would have been okay. But for a little while, it was starting to get serious!
The prison did the right thing though, they shut the prison down! They started doing mandatory testing, issued everyone masks, and advised all to social distance themselves! As for any safety issues?!! None, I can honestly say that my safety has never been in question! (Thank you for asking).
As for visits; I’m from Southern California, so I’m quite a ways from home. To have my family drive up here would be a real hardship! I believe the last visit I had was in 1996, bummer huh?!! But yes, being away from your loved ones, and not knowing if they’re safe or not, is a hardship in itself!
But I thank God that every one of my family has been virus-free during this whole ordeal! For the most part, I’ve been coping pretty well, and taking things one day at a time.
