This letter was written by a person incarcerated at Valley State.
I did what I was required to do, to prevent contracting COVID-19. CDCR did not do what they were required to do. They stacked each pod with eight people. Not only did they do that, but they mixed inmates that had tested positive with inmates that were negative. They housed those inmates together in the same room.
The room I was in, they placed three inmates that had tested positive. These inmates were coughing and sneezing in the room. Before these inmates had showed up, I had tested about six times. Each time I tested negative.
December 2020, I tested positive for COVID-19. I had all the symptoms and to this day, I still can’t smell 100 percent. December 11, 2020, they moved me from the room I was in, to a quarantine building. In the quarantine building, I couldn’t call my family or friends.
I could not even tell them I caught COVID-19 and that I was okay. I couldn’t go to the canteen and I was cell-fed. It was a depressing time for me and it was Christmas time.
I strongly believe that because CDCR housed those three inmates in my pod, CDCR was the main reason I caught COVID-19. CDCR knew those men had tested positive for COVID-19. Why did they move those inmates with others that were negative?
Did CDCR deliberately put those inmates in my pod so that I would contract the virus? I believe CDCR gambled with my life. They had no idea how my body would react to the virus. I washed my hands, I wore a mask, I practiced social distancing.
The one thing I had absolutely no control over was those three inmates that were put in my room.
