11/6/20
Coming soon to a prison near you, COVID-19!
The WA DOC is proving yet again that they truly do not care about the health and welfare of incarcerated people. Today they just posted on the units that they will be resuming random and routine cell, pat, and strip searches on November 9th. They claim that PPE will be used in accordance with CDC guidelines. Translation: Officers will be issued PPE to protect them from possibly getting COVID-19 from an incarcerated person. This makes zero sense. The only way for incarcerated people to catch COVID-19 is if a staff member brings it into the facility.
For the last six months the DOC has suspended random and routine searches and instead have only done suspicion searches in order to limit close contact between staff and incarcerated people. The reversal of this policy comes at the worst possible time as covid-19 cases soar out in the community and it is only a matter of time until covid-19 once more sentences hundreds, and possibly thousands, of incarcerated people to death.
Amber Fayefox Kim 