This letter was written by a person incarcerated at SATF (California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison).
To whom this may concern,
I don’t know how or where you got my information, or why you decided to reach out to me. I don’t have a problem with it. It is good to know there are people on the outside, other than my family and friends, who are thinking about and believing in me.
In answering your call for submission, I’ve enclosed a five-page story about my and other people’s experiences in prison during the COVID-19 pandemic. I hope it’s not too long.
Thank you for your time and efforts. I wish you all the best in what you do.
Sincerely
***
The Pandemic Within
I first heard about the COVID-19 in February 2020, and like many people, I didn’t think it would’ve turn out to be a worldwide pandemic it has become. The prison administration here at SATF/State Prison at Corcoran (Substance Abuse Treatment Facility) has taken extreme measures to keep the virus out of its facilities from the moment California began shutting down. In fact, prisons like San Quentin, Lancaster, and others went through infections and outbreaks much earlier than here.
Obviously mistakes happened, but I’ll not delve on fault finding. Instead, I only wish to provide the experiences of people in prison during the coronavirus pandemic.
As things worsened on the outside, and Governor Gavin Newsom called for the shutdown of California, prison officials began implementing measures to safeguard SATF/SPC from COVID-19. One of the first measures that deeply impacted the lives of the people in prison was the discontinuation of visitors from outside who are not essential to the safety and security of the prison. This means that volunteers for self-help and college programs, and family and friends cannot come into prison for classes or visitations, respectively.
Other measures were about wearing masks, washing hands, and keeping social distance. The last measure was impossible for the facility that I am in because it is a dorm setting where the double bunks are set in close proximity, and where there are 12 to 14 people per pod, which is at about 90-100 percent capacity. Prison administration alleviated the problem by transferring almost half of the population to other prisons.
All of these precautions were enforced and met with resistance at first, but in the end they were begrudgingly followed. The reasons for the resistance was the lack of serious attitude about the COVID-19 and that people in prison feel that they are being punished with these precautions for something they didn’t cause. Moreover, the majority of the prison population believe that the coronavirus could only be brought in by prison staff.
Despite all the precautions taken, an outbreak ultimately took place. It began with isolated cases, which were then followed by program shutdown and COVID-tests. As the outbreak became apparent, prison officials designated one of the three buildings in the facility as a quarantine building.
It began moving all of the infected people there and moving the non-infected people to the other two buildings with the intention to stave off the outbreak. However, things didn’t turn out as planned, as the outbreak continued to grow. Prison officials this time put the whole facility on quarantine and moved the rest of the people who’ve yet to test positive to another facility where there are so-called settings so that each person can be isolated from those that might infect them.
These actions by the prison officials, as good as they may sound, were futile. Due to the incubation period, and the four to five days it takes for the test results to return, people began showing symptoms after they have moved to the other buildings. Thus, cross-infections occurred. The outbreak lasted a month. There was no death in the facility that I am in but, last I checked, there were six deaths in this prison. Overall, and even to this day, only about five percent of the population have never been tested positive for COVID-19.
Most infected people showed symptoms such as lost of taste, fatigue, and persistent coughs to name a few. The majority of the people recovered from the illness in a couple of weeks and did not have any lingering problems. Those with major complications took longer to heal and have many lingering problems. Perhaps the most astounding, although not surprising, thing is no medical treatment was given. The infected people were basically told to “ride it out” by medical staff.
Through it all, the only thing that negatively impacted the people in prison the most, other than the loss of visitation, was the mental toll of moving. The stress of each move and the knowledge that you could be move if your test comes back positive was unnerving. Anyone who has moved to a new place, or have traveled can understand the loss of what little comforts he or she accustomed to.
It’s the uncertainty that we have to deal with when going to a new place. Like, for example, meeting new people who come with their own personalities and quirks, or moving to the bunk area without knowing if it is infected with COVID-19 by the previous occupant. On top of that, many were dealing with the coronavirus that is affecting their health.
Many readers may think that prisoners don’t have feelings or don’t deserve empathy, and they would be wrong to think so. Prisoners were once regular individuals of society, and have feelings and emotions that in every human being. Furthermore, many has families on the outside. The fact that they committed crimes that have lasting and devastating effects on families and communities does not mean that they don’t have feelings and emotions.
They are locked up in prison because of their criminal behaviors, and not because they lost their humanity. Don’t get me wrong, I am NOT defending criminals or prisoners, myself included, nor I am justifying criminal behaviors. I only wish to present aspects that are inherent in prisoners but that are largely ignored or dismissed by society. That is why I am referring to prisoners as “people in prison.”
Again, I am not finding fault or placing blame, but only presenting the experiences of people in prison during this pandemic. The most important thing is the struggles that we all face are similar, if not the same, whether in or out of prison. The examples are the health and safety of our loved ones, how will we get through this pandemic, and when will it end?
Personally speaking, I am doing fine so far. It could be because of my practical personality, or my strong self-efficacy, or my stoic constitution, but in any case, I am able to deal with the stresses and tribulations of this crisis without much difficulty. I am not saying that I am better than anybody else. What I’m saying is that my life experiences gave me the abilities to deal with the problems produced by the COVID-19 crisis.
In short, I’m wired differently and, therefore, manage the pandemic differently. That said, I mostly deal with things that I can control, and approach things with an opened mind and a positive attitude. For example, the loss of visitation from family and friends is something I cannot control. I also understand that it is for the health and safety of everyone in and out of prison.
The things that I can control are I can call and write home to stay connected with family. Another example is my safety. I watch the news and all the numbers that they reported show less than one percent of the infected people died, and a little more than that have complications. I am healthy and don’t have any underlying problems.
Thus, I feel confident that, even if I did contract the virus, I would most likely recover in no time. So I do what I can control, which are wearing a mask, washing hands, and keeping social distance. To this day, I’ve yet to test positive for coronavirus, so thankfully, haven’t the chance to test my theory.
As far as coping with the pandemic, I stay busy. Yes, I do have time (no pun intended), more than what I know what to do with it. Yet I’ve found myself doing many things to keep me busy. The bulk of the works were the four classes that I took at Bakersfield College last fall. As a matter of fact, college classes have been keeping me busy for the last two years. I was on the verge of graduating with multiple associate degrees this spring, but due to the pandemic, it is now postponed until next spring, or even further.
I can’t control when I can graduate, but I can do my class works and mail them in to be graded. It is precisely my college education that enabled me to write this story, which is at the risk of sounding smarter than a prisoner should sound. Or maybe not, I don’t know. That is something I can’t control. What I can control is writing this story and let the readers judge for themselves.
Ultimately, I hope that the readers keep an open mind and a positive attitude when dealing with the pandemic. I’m not basing my advice on hard science. There is no need to.
Anybody who observe life can see and understand that it is filled with many positive things. Even though those positive things don’t all pay the bills, or restore what was lost, they can help anyone to get though the bad times. More importantly, they give all people the strength to hold on until this crisis is over.
