This letter was written by a person incarcerated at Soledad.
In 2010, I was transferred to Pleasant Valley State Prison where I immediately contracted coccidioidomycosis (or valley fever).
Pleasant Valley State Prison is located in Coalinga, California, which, is a known hotspot for valley fever which, African-Americans, Asians, and those with underlying conditions contract and suffer from at higher and more alarming rates. I’m African-American and I have asthma and should not have been housed there.
All of these facts were known to CDCR and yet, I and others like myself continue to be loaded up and shipped there. This, among other things, I have seen done behind these walls is why I am so overly concerned during the COVID-19 pandemic.
