This letter was written by a person incarcerated at USP Atwater Federal Center.
To whom it may concern, I wanted to take a few minutes to respond to the letter that I received from you a few days ago. I’m grateful for people like you in this world who acknowledge people such as myself with some respect, so thanks for that.
Being in prison itself at any point is tough in itself, although I’m in prison for breaking the law so I have to roll with it. I will say that during the public crisis (pandemic) it has added much more unnecessary stress to the situation at hand. I haven’t seen loved ones for over two years now and with the financial situation my loved ones are in because of the workforce decline at the beginning of the pandemic puts a strain with me inside the institution. It’s not as bad as it was or at least I can say that maybe I’ve had to adapt to my surroundings, which is nothing new to me.
Prisons stayed on lockdown for months on end to begin with, but now it’s much more open, although we are required to wear a mask at all times (we are not in a prison for following rules so you can imagine how hard it is to make sure all of the inmates are having their mask on and pulled up). As for myself I was in county jail waiting for court when all this COVID begin. Commissary stopped, the visits stopped, the barbers stopped coming and not long after that we went on lockdown which means we stayed in our jail cells 24/7 except to take a shower and we were single celled so it was difficult sometimes but I’ve managed to deal with it fairly easy.
I only have a mother out there in the outside world so I’m used to not getting a lot of mail or visits, phone calls. She stays pretty busy because she is a nurse in my hometown. I can honestly say that I’ve been more worried about my mother than anything else since she’s on the frontline.
I said to my celly the other day “what if when we get out there still COVID out there?” A celly is the name for our jailhouse roommate, we both only have around seven to eight years left before we go home.
Back to COVID though, it’s been getting into jails and institutions mainly by the staff bringing it in, I say that to say the government should make it mandatory for all staff to have the vaccine or they will be terminated. Once it enters the building and someone contracts it they lock us down until further notice (two to four weeks at minimum) and the infected staff member gets two weeks paid leave while we’re left to tough it out or suffer better said.
I will go ahead and say that I took the vaccine the first chance that I got, in West Virginia. They sent me to Atwater USP to this RU program, that’s the only reason I’m even on the West Coast. I’m originally from the East Coast as I’ve stated.
At the beginning it was stressful and I really honestly was somewhat kind of scared for my life, which is weird to say because I’m in prison my life is already at risk of being murdered by inmates and staff for that matter then I had to think about a virus that I can’t even see, it was really tough. Then I got the vaccine and felt better but now all these other variants are showing up which has me wondering all over again now if things are really going to be okay in here, out there, and also over the world.
Times are difficult and there are no sign of it letting up, it’s a daily struggle to maintain a positive mindset to keep moving in the right direction to make sure I make it home. I’m surrounded by some negative people filled with hate because these never going home. The only place I can escape from the negativity is in my own mind, I’m blessed to be mind strong so I just keep thinking all this with the world will work out for the greater good. One thing that will never fail is my faith in the Lord that this will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.
Hopefully I will hear back from some involved in this cause. It’s hard to find someone to talk to in here, at least anyone who really genuinely cares about the words coming out of your mouth. Most people only care about themselves and/or what they got goin on. I understand that nobody cares about me like I do and it’s the same with every human but that’s by nature.
Thank you for taking the time to send me something and also reading this response I sent. It would be a delight to correspond with someone again. Hopefully you have a blessed day, head up, chest out, spirits high always. Sincerely.
