This letter was written by a person incarcerated at Kern Valley.
Wow, I guess that good people still do exist. When I received a letter in the mail from your team I was shocked, because I didn’t think we as prisoners were thought of as being part of the human fabric, and honestly I feel as though no one cares about me.
What has it been like to be inside during this time? Scary! The not knowing, and to have something this serious going on and to not have people take it seriously is in a word, sad.
I have felt very unsure about my safety, health wise, since the pandemic began. The main reason being we are not and cannot be exposed to COVID unless it is introduced by staff, and yet even now there are still officials who just refuse to wear a mask.
Not to mention, three to four months into the pandemic I got diagnosed with MS. And to have your medical case in the hands of people who do not care, even if you have a disability illness on top of worrying about COVID and having a compromised immune system is nerve-racking!
The reduced visits don’t help, but the video visits makes it manageable. And the subject of loved ones is tough, in the past four months I have lost my grandmother, great aunt, cousin, and just this week my mother, none of them to COVID thankfully, but it hurts just the same. And this institution didn’t even follow protocol with providing a grief counselor, phone call, nothing. I just had to deal with it on my own in my own way.
And the food they provide here is inedible! They have provided vaccines for those who wanted them, but please keep in mind that all outbreaks that have been reported at CDCR institutes were started by either a sick or a asymptomatic officer.
I have an idea to help with the goal of positive reform, and mass incarceration! Thank you for your time and for caring. Keep up the great work. The world needs more people like you.
Best wishes.
