1/21/22
It is day 17 of the covid quarantine here in WCCW-MSU B pod. Earlier this week the DOC put out a memo which said there was 122 positive cases of covid at WCCW. Yesterday, over a dozen more people tested positive in MSU-B and were sent to the gym. One of whom is the friend of my roommate, which means she could have covid, which means I could have covid. I’ve marked the 25th on my calendar. If I’m tested on or after that date and I’m still negative, I’ll consider myself to be in the clear.
Thankfully, after the latest batch of positive cases were moved out of the unit, the CUS had everyone on the top tier with a roommate move into one of the neighboring empty cells, so we are all now in single cells. This also is a sign of just how many people are missing with covid. The unit was overcrowded. Now it is so empty we each get our own cell and rattle around in its emptiness like so many ghosts.
After the people with covid left, people who have tested negative for covid in the gym returned to the unit. Still, the unit is unbelievably devoid of people.
We have some serious quality of life problems going on in the unit. We haven’t been able to get new bed sheets since the quarantine began. We haven’t been able to get to the phone because the c/o’s are trying to get everyone to the phone all in the same day (mathematically impossible with 70 cells total, 20 minutes per cell, only one cell out at a time, and only 10 hours in the day to get it done in). We are asking that they split it up, bottom tier Monday, top tier Tuesday, and etc, which would work with there being 32 cells per tier, but so far admin is not listening at all. And above all, we haven’t been informed of anything that’s going on. It makes for a lot of fear, uncertainty, isolation, and unnecessary stress.
I am certainly not in a good headspace right now. The emptiness of the unit reminds me of when I was in Walla Walla. When I first arrived at the facility, it was brand new, officially opened only 6 months before, and they were still filling up the beds. Then later, each time there was a major riot/multi-man fight, there would be mass pack outs and the unit would once again return to haunted emptiness. I’ve worked hard to get out of the mindset of the men’s prison since coming to WCCW, but this lock-down is setting me back in a lot of ways. More than a couple people have commented that I am much more jumpy, jittery, and generally on guard than they are use to seeing me. I’m just wondering how long it will take me to bounce back once the quarantine is over.
Amber Fayefox Kim 