Sunday, 11/29/20 8am
It’s my 3rd day in 24 hour, solitary confinement. All I can think to myself is, where are our advocates? Since being moved to the hole after my cellmate tested positive for COVID-19, I’ve sat in my cell in total isolation wondering, how does any of this make sense?
This year prison life has been extraordinarily more difficult than usual. Like everyone else in the free world, the people in prison are dealing with the added uncertainty and stresses associated with the pandemic. Prison has become more oppressive, restrictive and depressing and the need for advocates and prison oversight is needed more than ever.
Starting this past March, as preventative measures, the prison stopped our family members from visiting us, all religious services were canceled, educational programs were closed, and strict lockdown procedures were implemented. These restrictions have significantly added to the normal stresses, helplessness and other difficulties associated with prison life. Further, whether it has made the incarcerated any safer is very much in question.
On Friday my cellmate tested positive for COVID and was moved to a quarantine housing unit. He’s now amongst the 20% of the population who have tested positive. And as for me, even though I tested negative and have no symptoms, I was removed from the cellblock where I was housed and moved to the Restrictive Housing Unit (the new name for “the hole”) to be quarantined for 2 weeks. It should be noted, the cellblock where I was previously housed was already on lockdown status; however, my celly and I were allowed out of our cell, with 14 other men, for 1 hour a day to use the phones to call our families, use the microwaves, clean our cells, exorcise, and take showers. We also had access to what the prison calls, “The Fresh Air Program,” where we were allowed to go outside to the prison yard for 2-3 hours a week.
What’s most confusing is, instead of performing contact tracing or being quarantined with the other 14 men who were exposed, the prison administration has chosen, in a nonsensical, knee jerk reaction, to force me (as well as the other men who’s cellmates test positive) to be moved to “the hole” under 24 hour solitary confinement in segregation. We are not allowed any recreation time out of our cells, time to exorcise, or any fresh air in the yard. It is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in total isolation in a cell with limited sunlight and no social interaction. More worrisome is that it’s widely known amongst prisoners — and all the experts and the courts have agreed — that there are devastating, long term physical and psychological affects as a result of prolonged solitary confinement. So, while the men in this prison are desperately trying to stay healthy both physically and mentally, in a place where social distancing is impossible, with the added stresses and uncertainties of prison life during a pandemic, and while being completely isolated from our support systems, MCI-Concord’s response is to place us in solitary confinement with no recreation, no exorcise or fresh air.
We need help. We need advocates. Not only from the prison reform groups, but also the courts, the legislature, and the mental health community. The prisons are being decimated by this virus. Incarcerated people would rather suffer in silence then report symptoms for fear of being sent to the discipline unit for quarantine. Although they are now allowed to have their property, initially they were not. Cells in solitary typically do not have electricity because people have started fires. Imagine being sick and unable to at least settle in with a book or something to watch on TV. Prison officials don’t know what to do. Correctional Staff are unsure and frustrated as well. Social distancing is logistically impossible in prison. It is during desperate times such as these that advocates and prison oversight is needed most. The men in prison are vulnerable. Like many these days, we’re scared, unsure, worried about our families, and battling the feelings of helplessness and depression. It is time for intervention. Please help.