The Prison Narrative Must Be Change by William Thorpe

 

Covid Behind Bars and Recovery

"On December 22, 2020, I was moved from my original unit, Delaware Hall, to Lee Hall, to go on a 10-day quarantine prior to my scheduled transfer to FCI Allenwood Low in Pennsylvania.  During this time, I was housed by myself in a two-man cell on the first floor of the building.  It was a very small cell, probably no more than 8x10 feet.  There were about 25-30 other people on my side of the first floor, which is a very long corridor divided into an east and west section.  There was a maximum of two men in any one cell, which in theory, should have provided ample social distancing to prevent an outbreak of COVID-19.

Unfortunately, Lee Hall has three floors total.  Both the basement and second floor of the building are open dorms (called "parking lots" by us inmates), and the basement in particular housed 50-60 people during my first weeks there.  There were no walls to separate bunk areas in the basement or second floor, and most bunk areas were less than the mandated six feet apart for social distancing.  Lee Hall is also poorly ventilated; I have seen no evidence of air ducts being cleaned or air filters being changed (if they exist at all).  The windows are are large, but don't open wide enough to allow for sufficient air flow into cells or throughout the unit.  On a sunny day, you can see the clouds of dust swirling around in the sun's rays coming in from the windows.  We're breathing this!!   

**Also note that we have not been let outside ONCE since Dec. 22 for recreation time, so we're not getting any kind of fresh air or sunshine.  I have been taking multivitamins ever since to make up for the deficiency of essential vitamins and minerals, made worse by a diet of cold trays that are supposed to be hot, consisting usually of greasy meats, undercooked starches, and almost no green vegetables.  Restricted to about two bottles of water per day, I have to ration out my water throughout the day and night, so I'm barely getting half the water I require each day, and nobody in their right mind willingly drinks the tap water from here over concerns with its lead content.**

**It should also be noted that Lee Hall is a legally condemned building that is unfit for human occupation.  The only reason it has not been torn down is its status as a national historic site, which by law, protects it from being demolished.**

The COVID outbreak at Lee Hall started in the basement, not surprisingly.  At one point, 22 people were moved to the isolation unit at Carolina Hall (more on that in a minute) in a day.  Every inmate in Lee Hall who served as an orderly, especially a head orderly, caught COVID-19, no exceptions.

On Tuesday, January 19, I was given a nose swab COVID test, which came back positive two days later.  I was moved, along with about 10-11 other inmates, to Carolina Hall, which had been set aside as an isolation unit.  Previously, Carolina Hall was cleared of inmates and was in the process of renovation to comply with CDC standards for social distancing.  When the outbreak at FCI Petersburg intensified, however, the renovation, done by inmates, was put on hold.  By the time I arrived at Carolina Hall, the unit was showing signs of neglect and disrepair.  

They first tried to place us on the first floor of the unit, where the floor tiles have been removed, so were were standing on raw cement.  The room was OVERWHELMINGLY DUSTY.  Attempts to close the window blinds resulted in clouds of dust swirling all over the room, getting into my eyes; had I not been wearing a mask I probably would have choked on it.  I made a point not move any items around too vigorously.  The shower area smelled horribly of urine and there were mountains of black mold up and down the shower walls.  

I don't know how being forced to live in a dusty, moldy unit was in any way conducive to recovery from an acute, highly contagious respiratory disease.  Nobody thought to clean the place before placing inmates there.  Inmates ususally do the dirty tasks of cleaning the compound, and even though there were none available during the lockdown, staff were clearly not inclined to clean the units themselves.  

After we vehemently expressed to staff that these living conditions would not be acceptable, they were kind enough to move us to an upstairs section, already occupied by another 16-17 inmates.  Once we moved in, there were 27 men, overcrowded into a small to medium-size room, expected to isolate and distance themselves in an only-slightly-less dusty room as the one downstairs.

I must also point out just how badly we have been treated by staff here during this time of quarantine.  During our time in Carolina Hall, they really treated us like a leper colony.  There were days we received no hot trays, but just bags and box meals.  A woman from medical staff told us we were at fault for our illness since we never wore our masks (not true.)  They were constantly accusing US of making THEM sick, even though they were the only ones who could have brought the disease here since they had daily physical contact with the outside.  There were lurid jokes made about us dying in mass before we get vaccinated.  With the exception of a few members of staff and medical, the staff's behavior during this pandemic been unacceptable.  

We were housed in this room for a total of ten days (actually 11-12 days, since the move-in and move-out dates were not factored in our isolation time), before being sent to the second floor of Lee Hall, where we are currently residing.

The upstairs section of Lee Hall, when we moved in, gave every impression of being abandoned for months.  Broken windows everywhere.  More dust clouds.  Rodents bold as brass. A room with a leaky radiator and a hole in the floor.  Flooded bathrooms.  Praise must be given to inmate orderlies and other clean-conscious inmates who took the task of getting our current residing area to a somewhat-acceptable standard of cleanliness.

And here we are.  Hopefully people will get a better idea of how this pandemic has only compounded our punishment and decreased our humanity in the eyes of most of the staff here."

The author wishes to be anonymous.

Changing The Prison Narrative

 

Cassandra Bensahih (Unitarian Universalist Mass Action): Unlocking the Box

Credit Cassandra Bensahih

This lecture was part of the International Symposium on Solitary Confinement held November 5-6, 2020 and sponsored by The Office of the Provost of Thomas Jefferson University. Cassandra Bensahih. Cassandra Bensahih Is the coordinator for MASC (Massachusetts Against Solitary Confinement). MASC embraces abolition but until that day is reached, the campaign’s focus is ending the torture of solitary confinement. A core value of this campaign is that it is led by impacted people and survivors of solitary confinement. Cassandra works to develop relationships with a growing network of survivors, people who are formerly incarcerated and family members with loved ones inside. It is from this network that people are invited to join the leadership team and work together to identify the campaign goals and develop the strategies and tactics that will help us achieve our goals. Cassandra has grown the coalition from a small group of dedicated volunteers to a statewide coalition of several hundred activists. The campaign has evolved, as well, from a legislative focus to a multi-approach campaign focused on changing the brutal culture of punishment in Massachusetts prisons. Cassandra works to voices of the survivors are present in every opportunity where they can tell their truth and counter the misinformation spread by the Dept. of Corrections. In addition to her role as the statewide coordinator for MASC, Cassandra is also the Senior Organizer and Development Coordinator at Unitarian Universalist Mass Action Network. Cassandra also volunteers as the Criminal Justice Policy Coordinator for the Massachusetts Women of Color Coalition (M.W.O.C.C) and is a member of the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Women and Girls. In this role, she embraces outreach to impacted communities throughout Massachusetts. Cassandra has been a leader in criminal law reform for the past 11 plus years. She brings her insight as a woman of color and mother affected by the criminal legal system. Her personal experience, along with the relationships she has built in doing this work, compels her to change the brutal systems that have had a devastating impact on so many lives.

Special Thanks To Cassandra Bensahih for this presentation on solitary confinement

Keramet Reiter (UC Irvine): Potentials and challenges of reform efforts ...

Credit Keramet Reiter

This lecture was part of the International Symposium on Solitary Confinement held November 5-6, 2020 and sponsored by The Office of the Provost of Thomas Jefferson University. Keramet Reiter, JD, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Criminology, Law & Society in the School of Social Ecology at the University of California, Irvine. She holds a J.D. and Ph.D. in Jurisprudence & Social Policy from the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of 23/7: Pelican Bay Prison and the Rise of Long-Term Solitary Confinement (Yale University Press, 2016) and multiple law and social science articles evaluating the history of solitary confinement use, its impacts on individual health and well-being, and the challenges of institutional reform. Recently, she has been the principal investigator on a project, funded by the Langeloth Foundation, evaluating long-term solitary confinement reform in Washington State

Special Thanks to Keramet Reiter for this presentation on solitary confinement.

Earl Smith (Wake Forest): Way Down in The Hole: Race in Solitary Confinement

Credit Earl Smith

This lecture was part of the International Symposium on Solitary Confinement held November 5-6, 2020 and sponsored by The Office of the Provost of Thomas Jefferson University. Earl Smith, PhD, is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of American Ethnic Studies and Sociology at Wake Forest University, and is currently teaching classes in Sociology, African and African American Studies, and Women & Gender Studies at the University of Delaware. Dr. Smith earned his Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut. His teaching and research focus on the sociology of sport, social stratification, and the intersection of race and the criminal justice system. He is the author of 12 books, including his most recent books, Gender, Power and Violence (2019), and Policing Black Bodies (2018). Currently he is finishing the book Way Down in the Hole: Race, Intimacy and the Reproduction of Racial Ideologies in Solitary Confinement (2021). The book is based on three summers of ethnographic research in a large state penitentiary system. Methodologically, we conducted over 100 face-to-face interviews with inmates and correctional officers.

Special Thanks to Earl Smith for this presentation on solitary confinement.

vapac