Prison Plague Log
2020-5-17
Today I happened to see what the “mandatory temperature checks” look like on B pod of my unit.
Two c/o’s and a nurse go into the pod. They line everyone up down the tier, shoulder to shoulder. Then hold a gun-shaped non-contact thermometer to their temple, clearing each person in turn.
It is a mechanical impersonal process which makes me think of people being lined up to be shot.
2020-5-18
B wing of B unit (my unit) is now off quarantine after one week. Allegedly it was a false alarm.
2020-5-19
Today I just learned of the first COVID-19 related death in the Washington DOC. A c/o who normally worked at MSU tested positive for the virus and is now dead. I don’t know what their name was. I don’t know if they were an alright person who happened to pick up a DOC paycheck, or a mean sort with a drop on their shoulder. I don’t know anything about them.
All I know is that their friends and family are in pain. And as far as I’m concerned, that’s where the buck stops. This should not have happened.
We, as a nation should have taken COVID-19 far more seriously than we did. I specifically include myself in this. I thought it would be like another nasty flu season like we’ve been seeing the last couple years, but when it became clear that this is something different, when it became clear that this could not be business as usual, and it became clear that the powers that be were going to do little to nothing, I knew then this was going to be different. I knew that millions would die.
This is not okay. The same mistake is being made again. Please, do not let the deaths of those who have died of COVID-19 thus far be in vain. A vaccine is being developed by many nations and multinational corporations in record time. We have to keep the curve as low as possible until these vaccines can be developed and distributed. No amount of money, no economy, no “sense of normalcy” is worth the price of peoples lives.
I offer the friends and family of the c/o who died of COVID-19 my condolences.
2020-5-22
I think I’m just about done doing a (more or less) daily log. Yesterday someone got taken from B pod to isolation but B pod is not on quarantine, so I don’t know what’s going on with that. The DOC has been releasing people. Our unit now has 10 empty beds, none of which are on my pod.
More people are being released, no chains in, we are still picking up our meals from the chow hall (though, there are rumblings of among admin to have us eat in the chow hall again, terrible idea), and basically everyone who normally get visits but currently can’t are 18 kinds of insufferable. In short, we are no longer dealing with daily adjustments, we have a new normal.
2020-5-29
We’ve been issued another bar of soap today.
Amber Fayefox Kim 