This letter was written by a person incarcerated at CMC (California Men’s Colony).
Top of the morning to you. I hope and pray that this letter finds you blessed and in good spirits and great health. Well I don’t know who I’m writing to, but the fact that there’s someone out there that cares about me, well us prisoners here at CMC.
That’s cool, and that’s why I’m sharing my story with you. And I also gave the info to one of my homeboys as well and he has a story to tell about coping with COVID. I think you will like it because its hard to share what’s going on in here so hearing from you is a blessing.
Well, being in prison don’t help much while going through this pandemic because this is a deadly virus. And about 1,000 of people are dying every day. And I lost my father as well so it hurts and it’s serious to me.
So from the beginning, I work at the PIA laundry factory here at CMC and the virus hit there first. One of the free staff or our supervisor caught COVID-19 and the whole factory was quarantined.
So I’ll explain more clearly about this prison. Well there’s four different yards A, B, C, and D yard. Even though we’re separated we all work together at different shops. So we were all quarantined for 14 days, then everybody went back to their own yards because most of us tested negative.
So about two weeks later I was tested again and they said I tested positive. So I panicked and stared at the wall in my cell thinking “wow I don’t want to die here in prison.” Then called my family and children and told them the bad news, so that’s what it’s been like for me inside prison.
And as for my safety, I blame the free staff and the CO because it had come from them because they stopped visiting for us quickly. I don’t think that they were taking it serious at first because if they were this prison wouldn’t have 83 percent of infected cases. So I feel like my life is nothing to them and a violation of my Eighth Amendment rights falls on medical and custody staff as well.
So actually I’m scared for my life because you never know when the pandemic can get worse. So thanks for reaching out to me. I hope my story will help. God knows I feel like nobody cares.
With much respect.