This letter was written by a person incarcerated at Solano.
Question number one: What has it been like to be inside during this time?
I live in a dorm style environment. It holds 12 people when it is full. The dorm measurements are approximately 25x17x8.
We sit approximately three feet away from each other at a table designed for four when we are eating.
There are six toilets on each side of the building on the lower tier. There are three toilets on each side of the top tier. They are approximately three feet apart from each other.
There are seven sinks each in the bathrooms on the lower tier and five sinks each on the top tier. They are approximately one and a half feet from each other.
It is impossible to maintain six feet apart from one another in this prison. Its original design was to hold one person per bunk but because of need to accommodate more and more people, we are forced to have bunkmates and crowd in together.
When the pandemic hit, Governor Newsom made an announcement for prisons to stop transferring prisoners because of what happened to San Quentin. CDCR moved infected prisoners to San Quentin and they were hit with a pandemic that they could not get under control. Lots of people got exposed, and got sick, and some even died.
On October 27, 2020 inmates that were infected at Old Folsom prison were transferred to Solano prison (where I currently reside). This was done after Governor Newsom told CDCR to stop with the transfers. One of those prisoners was moved right next to me and told me he tested positive for COVID at Old Folsom and went through their quarantine. Then was moved to Solano prison without being quarantined here.
