India Porter letter about Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility to Ashley Lucas (PCAP/DCC).
What I observe happening:
For me, time in prison always seemed to go extremely slow, but since this pandemic has happened its as if time has stopped.
The officers are stressed and my peers and I are in a calm panic. A lot of the staff are nicer and they are kind of giving off a we are all in this together vibe. It seems this virus has leveled the field and there is no us and them, but human to human.
for the positive things, they have made bleach readily available for us to use as often as we need it. They issued 3 face masks to each inmate and they have also started giving us 2 free jpay stamps per week as well as 2 free five minute phone calls.
the negative side is that a lot of people are sick and not saying anything because they dont want to be shipped off into isolated quarantine. The adminstration is stressing social distancing, which is impossible because we live on top of each other. 2 to a cell if you are lucky but others are 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 16 people in one living space. And what happens to your cell mates happen to you because 1 person reports they are having symptoms everyone in that cell is quarantined, and someone tests positive the entire unit is quarantined all together within the unit. So if someone is positive in my unit and I am not I will probably end up being infected.
There is a 10 people maximum for community day rooms but for meals and medication lines they make us all gather in a huge group of 200 plus women on the base area no more than 5-6 inches away from each other to leave and go to eat and get meds as a group (but we are supposed to social distance???!!!) I asked the sargent why were they doing this and he pointed to a group of about 7 women walking together and said “if they don’t care why should we?)
We then have to stand close together in the chow line as we wait to be seated and then they make us wait until everyone is done eating and then we have to leave out the chow hall as one big group. I asked the warden why we couldnt leave out individually, he first made sure I stayed at least 6 feet away from him before I spoke while two huge groups of inmates came busting out of the chow hall in extremely close contact. But his answer was, this is how “they” are having us do it. I don’t know who “they” are he was referring to. I watch the news and hear the emphasis on social distancing will save lives and I look around at my reality and it devestates me that my life doesn’t matter in that way.
The whole thing is scary and heartbreaking. I always looked out into the world through my tv to refuel on hope and to see what I have to look forward to when I get out now watching the news is scary and heartbreaking. Seeing the death toll rise everyday makes me appreciate and value life and I vow that after this I will make my life count for something that will benefit the betterment of others.
