This letter was written by a person incarcerated at Pleasant Valley.
“You’ve tested positive,” stated flatly a guard at my cell door.
“You’re joking,” I responded, as he shook his head no.
I had been sick for awhile, sore throat, head and body aches, a lack of energy, but could still smell and had no fever. I packed my property. And along with 20-odd prisoners, awaited carts to move to the quarantine housing unit.
I first heard of COVID-19 just after the Super Bowl where my beloved San Francisco 49ers had lost to the Kansas City Chiefs, but it was far away in China and did not impact my everyday in California prison.
I watched 60 Minutes and not the words but the visuals shot in a Wuhan hospital brought the crisis into focus. The medical staff looked beyond overwhelmed, as they treated patients stacked everywhere among the dead bodies and vomit splattered on the floor.
