This story was told by a person incarcerated at Fresno County Jail.
Caller: My experience as of now is that just two days ago, an inmate came up with the flu, so they removed him from the population and put him in isolation. Now we’re quarantined. There’s 45 to 50 of us in a tank the size of a Starbucks walk-in.
So, we’re concerned about the flu and concerned about our families. We can’t go to court right now. We are unable to get visits.
It’s the guards that bring in the pandemic. It’s them. Because when we’re here for a year or two, you know, and nobody gets sick and nobody enters, it’s obvious that if the flu does occur, it’s the result of a guard bringing it to us.
In some places, they’re calling it the invisible enemy because it’s something we can’t see. And it’s like, the natives, that’s what they call the, I think it was smallpox when they were being – I don’t know if you know the story of the native, but they called smallpox the invisible enemy. So, I think that’s where the term came from around here is because they brought it into the tribes, the Indian tribes.
That’s what’s happening now in jail or prison. It’s not the inmates are bringing it. We’re catching it from the guards or from the employees or any worker that enters the facility. That’s how it’s spreading. You know. So, I think that’s why they quarantine the guards as well at some point.