Who is the real killer?

Covid-19… Something that doesn’t discriminate against any race, gender, or people.

Dealing with this deadly virus in prison is far worse because there is no such thing as social distancing. We are cooped up in one big bubble, forced to eat, shower, use phones together, and sleep together. But that’s not the issue, the issue is that the staff gets to leave work and bring the virus in without getting properly tested for the virus. Instead, the National Guard comes in months later to check all inmates, still not testing staff members.

It was a horrible experience to have tested positive for Covid-19. We were punished for something that we did not bring in, and are still being punished to this day. Sadly, inmates have lost their lives due to staff ignorance. A guy in my unit, Sanders-Bey, died. I talked to this man every day, and sometimes I would bust him upside the head playfully and take off running. He was old enough to be my father. I still can’t believe he’s gone. He had health issues, but this could’ve all been avoided if staff were properly tested. I honestly believe that some officers knew they had it and still came to work. I can’t prove it, but I know for sure. I’m not saying they were doing it to be spiteful, but they did it and it was wrong.

April 23, 2020, 1:37am. I woke up with a gold glow over my body, and my body had vibration lines over it like a cartoon. I kept saying, “what the fuck?” over and over, but trying not to wake my bunky. The glow eventually went away and so did the vibration lines. I’m on the bottom bunk and didn’t want to stand straight up because dizziness was one of the symptoms and I didn’t want to fall in fear of hitting my head on one of the solid objects in the cell. So I placed my feet on the floor and stood up. My bunky was still asleep, so I quietly left the cell and walked around the unit in the middle of the night repeatedly saying, “I’m not going to die like this”. I stayed out the cell, pacing around the unit for fifteen minutes until I finally went back inside my cell. I was up all throughout the night, scared to go to sleep in fear of not waking up. Breakfast came (6:00am), and here I was awake and scared. My body was so fatigued, so I took an Alka-Seltzer and an allergy tablet. It was 1:49pm when I finally went to sleep, literally staying up twelve straight hours. I woke up around five o’clock and felt better, having enough energy to write everything in my journal that just happened.

I thought it was over, but that was just the beginning of the real life nightmare. I woke up the next day with chills, and that lasted for about two days. Blood clots came next, they were in my right foot and still are to this day. Diarrhea/continuous bowel movement came after that, and I knew I had Covid-19, but I figured it would be gone soon. I was also concerned with other inmates’ health in the unit. So I cleaned up after myself and even went so far as to letting my fellow inmates know that I had Covid-19.

We weren’t given the proper PPE to actually clean, and on top of that, we were given watered down bleach from the MDOC trying to cut back on the State’s spending. Trying to save money instead of saving lives, typical MDOC. Even though the facility did not offer the proper cleaning equipment, I still helped and cleaned around the unit.

No one wanted to alert the staff if they had Covid-19 because of how they were destroying property after you packed up. Taking your food and throwing it away. It was more of a punishment than anything. So that deterred inmates from letting staff know that they were infected.

I felt nauseated, then my appetite was gone. May 14, 2020, I lost my taste and smell. The loss of taste lasted for three days, and the loss of smell lasted for two weeks. The National Guard came in and tested all inmates, and a couple days later the results came. Me and my bunky, along with forty plus other inmates, were close contact and positive and were moved to an isolation unit; showering only three times a week, receiving cold meals three times a day, only getting thirty minutes of day room (leisure activity) Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We had to shower, use the phone, and JPay in thirty minutes. The inmates were all true Level ll, and we were being punished for a heinous act committed by staff. Me and another inmate had our loved ones calling up to the facility to see why we were being treated unfairly. A few changes were made but the treatment was still inhumane.

I stayed in isolation for about a month. Being a vegetarian, I had to get special trays which were not delivered to me sometimes. I had to call home to have my mother complain about me not eating, especially during a pandemic, placing me in grave danger because you need the proper nutrition to keep your immune system up to fight off the virus. I suffered, and I don’t want to say all staff, but most didn’t care whether I ate or not. One officer, who since retired, said, “You don’t need a tray, you have enough food in your locker to last up to three weeks.” This was forty-five minutes prior to asking for my tray. I was entitled to receive a tray just like everyone else. I have been writing them up ever since. But my grievance was denied due to lack of evidence.

We had to get two negative tests to leave the isolation unit. So I sat patiently waiting for my results. I ended up testing positive again, and my bunky got a negative. It was only supposed to be eight days but it turned into month for me. We weren’t allowed any of our personal property except for two pair of under garments, one towel, one washcloth, our legal work, hygiene products, a TV, and tablet. I was smart enough to smuggle my fan, more garments, food, and my watch. The rooms were extra hot and the doors were shut all day until we fought to have them opened and that was at the end of our stay.

There are timers on the toilets that only allow you to flush once every five minutes, and if you didn’t, the toilet would lock, leaving urine and/or feces in the toilet. With the staff members knowing that diarrhea was one of our symptoms, this was totally cruel and unusual punishment. The officers in the unit were fair but they were only doing what they were told to do.

No sergeant, lieutenant, captain, or anybody in a superior position made rounds checking on the isolation unit. They came to the unit but not on the rock. There was only one and his name is Deputy Schooley. He even came to the yard to talk to us, providing us with as many answers as he could answer. I thanked him personally.

Me and my next door neighbor fought hard every day to get more yard, phone and JPay usage. They ended up letting us go to store the next week but our stuff took another week to arrive. It was so many days before we saw a change.

I got back to my original cell June 11, 2020; same bunky because he got back before me. The gold glow came from me hallucinating, not getting enough oxygen to the brain.

I am a survivor of Covid-19 in prison but still a victim of MDOC neglect. The problem is officers don’t want to be checked but they still want a check. The real question is, ‘is money more important than someone’s life?’ So I ask again, “who is the real killer?”