We now have the first confirmed case of an incarcerated person having COVID-19 in a Washington state prison, at least the first the DOC has owned up to. And it’s close. Terrifyingly close.
Previously, an incarcerated person on a hospital trip from MCC-TRU-A unit (Monroe Correctional Complex, Twin Rivers Unit) tested positive for it at the hospital and was kept on quarantine at the hospital until he got better. He now lives on the same pod I do. So that was a. uncomfortably close “near miss.” Now an incarcerated person in MCC-MSU (Monroe Correctional Complex, Minimum Security Unit) has tested positive.
It is only a matter of time until the virus gets into where I live.
Due to the DOC being short staffed, officers are pulling double and triple shifts. A c/o or nurse may work in multiple parts of the prison in a single day as what posting they are assigned to changes shift to shift. This makes them highly efficient cross-pollinators. Every year they carry flu’s, colds, bronchitis, and other diseases from one part of the prison to another, spreading disease with every pat search they perform.
In short, I’m scared. I know that the virus will not stop taring through the prison until herd immunity is achieved. Meaning 70% to 80% of the population has had it. I see the death toll out there. I see the number of old folx in here. I don’t want to bear witness to what I fear is coming.
Amber Fayefox Kim 