This letter was written by a person incarcerated at Pleasant Valley.
We were issued face masks. The prison stopped using the dining hall, cell feeding, visiting was cancelled, and then a confusing array of changes to the program ensued to minimize person-to-person contact.
Sometimes the changes reduced contact, but other times it puzzlingly increased contact. San Quentin, Avenal, and other prisons were consumed by COVID-19. Many prisoners I’d done time with passed away.
At first only staff were tested for COVID-19 but then inmate kitchen workers were tested. And finally everyone was given weekly tests. Prisoners started disappearing to COVID-19 quarantine due to contact tracing or positive tests.
One night 75 prisoners from another facility did not receive a cellmate but the next day compacted voluntarily with another prisoner who a week later was taken to quarantine due to contact tracing.
A prisoner was moved into my cell from the quarantine unit. He had finished his 14-day quarantine, but was still coughing and sneezing. That night I imagined COVID-19 raining down on me from the top bunk.
A week later, I became ill but tested negative for COVID-19, so I thought maybe I just had a cold. The following week I was tested again and this time the test came back positive and the guard popped up at my cell door.
