This letter was written by a person incarcerated at Valley State.
Back in March of 2020 I became ill with flu like symptoms and was put in quarantine with another inmate also with symptoms of his own. We received daily vitals checks and medication twice a day for seven days then returned to normal housing. After about a month I continued to have pressure on my chest, was seen by medical staff on three different occasions with no results found. I had asked if I should be tested for COVID-19 but was told it was a flu.
I have never had a flu that stayed in my chest for so long duration before in my life, was told back in the August medical visit I would have follow up that has not happened to this day. The whole basis for me writing attorneys is this. The quarantines in earnest started in September for me as well as the whole prison.
In my dorm low at that time had three inmates working in optical where they were in contact with free-staff all day and were told they had been closed down for a week because a free staff tested positive. This became the norm. Every time someone tested positive we went on quarantine. And it may seem like an accident that CDCR started moving inmates in and out of dorms, buildings, and yard right after the government passed the expedited early release program related to COVID-19 after myself and I am sure many others who had real concerns as I do.
But as always CDCR always finds a way to make a law not apply, how! Give everyone COVID by moving inmates returning from testing positive into dorms where everyone has been testing negative, working to perfection. Here we are doing everything in our control to be safe only to have CDCR bring it into your housing.
Example, I had over a dozen negative tests since they started testing for COVID only to have them move two inmates into our dorm while we’re on quarantine. Both arrived complaining of still not having taste or sense of smell, and within a few days of arriving one began to have symptoms, fever, and chills but would avoid the daily temperature checks. Within a week two more had fevers, by that time it was too late.
We were tested on December with four positives and moved to the COVID-19 yard until coming back to C yard on January 2021. We were put on quarantine on November and didn’t come off until aforementioned date. 51 straight days on quarantine, with two phone calls and two days of yard in that span of 51 days.
