23-Year-Old Incarcerated Man Contracts COVID-19 From Prison Dining Hall
In a stunning new development, on 4/16/20 a young 23-year-old African-American man from Muskegon, Michigan, tested positive for COVID-19 at Lakeland Correctional Facility (LCF), the prison I am housed at. (I will refer to the man as “A.C.” to protect his real name.)
A.C. lived in my housing unit in a part of the building that is an open dorm setting with approximately 40 other people. He was a student in the Food Technology program which teaches incarcerated people skills in the cooking and hospitality industry.
I met him a few months ago when he first moved into the housing unit. We didn’t talk frequently but we would have occasional conversations when he came to me for legal advice about his case. Overall he is good young guy trying to get his life together and make his mother proud who is the pastor of a church in their hometown.
A couple weeks ago two Food Service supervisors and a wave of dining hall workers contracted COVID-19 or were quarantined due to being in close contact with a person who tested positive for the virus. Two Food Service supervisors tested positive for COVID-19, two of them were quarantined for having close contact with them, and one of the supervisors quit his job.
In a moment of crisis A.C.’s Food Technology supervisor Jimmy Hill stepped up to fill the void. He called upon his Food Technology students and clerks to show up in Food Services to prepare and serve food to the 1,300 men housed at the prison.
I remember seeing A.C. in the dining hall the first morning he worked. He handed me my breakfast tray and we exchanged a few words. Later that day we talked a bit more when he returned to the housing unit about how he happened to begin working in Food Services.
After about a week of volunteering in the dining hall A.C. told several people in the housing unit that he no longer wanted to work there because he noticed that several people who were working around him were ill. Several of them lived in housing units where people had tested positive for COVID-19.
One morning I overheard A.C. tell two people, “Man, a bunch of those guys are sick over there. I’m done going over there. I’m not getting sick working in that kitchen.” That afternoon A.C. stopped volunteering to work in the dining hall.
In the days that followed A.C. began reporting symptoms of feeling ill to people he associated with in the housing unit. He also began complaining to staff. He complained of chest pains, labored breathing, dizziness, fatigue, and expressed that he was scared he may have contracted COVID-19.
Previous to this A.C. was a frequent visitor near the area I live in the housing unit. He would often talk to another young person who lives nearby me outside the door to our dorm. When the young person heard A.C. complain of feeling ill he began distancing himself out of an abundance of caution.
For the past week A.C. made repeated attempts to have Health Care provide him care. According to two sources close to him he made at least six attempts to receive help from Health Care, and each time he was denied treatment and returned to the housing unit. One time they provided him aspirin.
A.C. repeatedly complained to custody staff on all three shifts and Health Care staff begging for help. I observed him on two occasions waiting for the phone or JPay kiosk standing as he laid his head against the wall.
Two nights ago, after repeated attempts to seek help from Health Care, A.C. was finally tested for COVID-19 and placed in quarantine status awaiting the outcome of the test results, and yesterday we learned that he tested POSITIVE for COVID-19.
A.C.’s story confirmed what I have been stating since March 21, twenty-six days ago: COVID-19 is alive and well in the Food Service building where the dining hall is located which I have repeatedly been writing about.
Prior to A.C. volunteering in the dining hall he had no contact with people outside of the housing unit because our yard and dining hall schedules have been separated from other units. The only contact he had with people who live in other housing units was during his time working in the dining hall.
The dining hall is the only space in the entire prison where over 1,300 people from different housing units interact and have the potential to infect one another. This includes both dining hall workers and people from different housing units who eat their meals there.
If any real contact tracing is done for A.C. it will reveal that A.C. contracted COVID-19 from his time working in the dining hall. An abundance of evidence points to this undeniable fact. Even A.C. himself repeatedly told several people this himself. He didn’t begin feeling sick until after working there.
Sadly there are too many A.C.’s throughout the prison whose bodies are serving as human incubators for the deadly novel Coronavirus and whose persistent pleas for help continue being ignored.
Since my last writing a new study released has found that people infected with COVID-19 are most contagious when they are pre-symptomatic. This new information is further evidence of the need for MDOC staff to take claims by people of early COVID-19 symptoms seriously rather than being dismissive or denying them testing or care.
Yesterday another man in my housing unit who worked in the dining hall had to be taken to Health Care in the middle of the night and placed in quarantine because of advanced COVID-19 symptoms. He, too, reportedly complained to Health Care staff for help twice and was returned to the housing unit without care.
This morning as I finished my final round of editing this writing I learned that yet ANOTHER man in the housing unit next door who worked in the dining hall serving people their food was exhibiting advanced symptoms of COVID-19 and taken to Health Care.
According to people with direct knowledge about the situation people reportedly informed staff about the man’s condition during the past week out of concern for him because they heard him repeatedly coughing, but Health Care staff never evaluated him.
Refusing to evaluate someone or sending him back to his housing unit after receiving COVID-19 evaluations to shed virus and potentially infect dozens of other incarcerated people and staff members is woefully incompetent, inhumane, and medical malpractice. In legalese it is also referred to as “deliberate indifference to a serious medical need.”
Several people have made numerous attempts to receive care or a COVID-19 test who have been denied because they didn’t exhibit a fever, only to fall seriously ill days later and require hospitalization due to the virus.
According to a source with firsthand knowledge, there were recently over 30 incarcerated people receiving care at Henry Ford Allegiance Hospital in Jackson, Michigan who have tested positive for COVID-19. Of that number 17 of them were on ventilators.
One can’t help but wonder how many of those people made repeated requests for care before descending into such a dire state of health. This is a matter that richly deserves to be explored by legal counsel and lawmakers to see if it could have been prevented.
Several people have recently asked me how I’m doing mentally and emotionally. The truth is I’m exhausted. This experience is taking a heavy toll on every incarcerated person fighting tirelessly to protect their lives. Remaining hypervigilant is grueling for those who know they must muster all their energy to keep fighting to stay healthy.
It’s been tough hearing my mother’s tears on the phone telling me she can’t stop worrying or thinking about me as she sees the rising number of people testing positive for COVID-19 at this prison and around the state. It’s also been tough talking to my wife about this experience and trying to keep our young 10-year-old daughter from going stir crazy in the house because of the Governor’s stay home, stay safe order.
At the end of the day I know I have to keep sharing the stories of our experiences inside prison, particularly for those who have no voice or platform to tell their own stories. People are enduring hardship every day. They are experiencing worry, feeling disoriented, and overwhelmed. Many are also grieving the loss of loved ones who succumbed to COVID-19 and died alone in a hospital because they couldn’t have visitors at their bedside.
It’s not easy right now. Many are expressing self doubt and grappling with how much more of this intensity they can endure as they look around at the cries for help that keep going ignored. Incarceration was already difficult enough before COVID-19 upended our daily lives. For many, this new “norm” has magnified the experience of incarceration tenfold.
One important lesson I have learned is that our perception of every experience can impact the outcome. That’s true even in the case of struggle. When I lay my head down at night I think about my loved ones and friends, and count my blessings. They are what keep me going every day.
I talk to my wife María each day and hearing her voice reminds me that I am not alone. I also talk to close friends like Tom and Ruth who help me with important research and keep sharing this experience with the world. They and my wife are the reason you are able to read these writings.
Somehow, some way we will marshal the strength necessary to pull through this ordeal together. I refuse to believe otherwise. My hope is that we can all learn valuable lessons and work together to aggressively prevent a recurrence of this horrific experience.
In prisons this begins with everyone taking this situation seriously and treating each other humanely, including those tasked with providing health care to those who need it. If not, in the words of Van Jones, Executive Director, The REFORM Alliance, prisons will soon become morgues. Real talk.
Please continue to.keep every incarcerated person and prison staff member infected with COVID-19 in your thoughts and prayers — including their family members. We remain hopeful for as many of their full recoveries as possible. #SMPR #AloneTogether#StayHomeStayStrong
[All names of people in this story were withheld to protect their privacy and identity. At no time will I provide names of sources in any of my writings unless specifically requested to do otherwise by the person who information is attributed to.]
(Efrén Paredes, Jr. is a blogger, thought leader, and social justice changemaker. His ongoing series about the COVID-19 crisis in Michigan prisons can be read at http://fb.com/Free.Efren.)
Source: http://fb.com/Free.Efren
