![]() ![]() Ventilators are already in short supply in the free world. Nurses routinely ignored calls for help and questions about medication, inconsistently checked on patients, and generally acted indifferent toward their welfare.Īccording to several staff, CP's hospital has no ventilators and only a handful of respirators. During the flu outbreak, seven death row prisoners were quarantined on the mental health unit because the hospital had no room for them. Prisoners who reported symptoms were tested for the flu and, if positive, quarantined via solitary confinement-no TV, radio, phone, personal property, or showers. Despite annual flu shots, and masks issued to any prisoner who asked, many people became sick. A month before COVID-19 struck the US, a vicious strain of influenza swept through CP. Are you one of them?Įven on death row, where a block contains only 24 single cells, viruses spread quickly. □ Over 22,000 people follow us on Twitter. Each bunk is 3 to 4 feet to the left, right, above, and below another bunk. Living spaces are open dormitories of 50 or more people sharing toilets, sinks, and showers. The Division of Prisons and CDC guidelines for preventing the spread of COVID-19 also say to "avoid contact with people" and to "stay home if you are sick," but minimum and medium custody facilities account for most of North Carolina's prisons. ![]() T first we joked about zombies and the apocalypse as cruise ships contaminated with the coronavirus found reluctant harbors. Sanitation and virus prevention have never been security concerns any more than the health and well-being of people in prison. COVID-19 could find welcome on every filthy surface and be tracked throughout the prison even if it is locked down. Every area is a "high traffic area" due to overcrowding, and chow halls and kitchens-where flies circle during the day and rats feed at night-are the worst. Unsanitary conditions in prison are common. See also: Detainment centers are not equipped to handle the coronavirus, experts say Though the commissioner of prisons assured the public we would be issued two bars of soap each week, claiming that this is a safety measure is laughable-most state prisoners have received two bars of soap every week for decades, and it hasn't prevented the spread of anything. New handwashing signs instructing to "wet, soap, scrub, rinse, dry: repeat" are undermined by actual practices. Vivid CDC handwashing signs appeared on random walls throughout CP, right beside older posters warning against the spread of staph infection, hepatitis, and influenza. To be clear, even if we still had parole in North Carolina, there is no assurance of safety in this pandemic. Without parole, many prisons have few means to reduce prison populations, thereby increasing the risk of infection with COVID-19. And North Carolina faces an additional hurdle of its own making- the abolition of parole, implemented in the Structured Sentencing Act of 1994. ![]() COVID-19 exploits each of these weaknesses. Before the pandemic, prisons were already overcrowded-staff undermanned, overworked, underpaid, and undertrained-and prison healthcare was spotty. But these safety measures, which also include mandatory cloth masks for prisoners, increased access to cleaning supplies, social distancing requirements, and disinfectant fans, reassured no one. There were memos to prisoners, wardens, and staff, screening procedures for entering the prison, and a COVID-19 Daily Briefing with a list of active coronavirus investigations in the state prison. He left a thick stack of stapled papers on the table, a surprising amount of information for a bulletin board usually littered with one paragraph memos. These restrictions will be assessed after that 30 day period." Effective immediately, all personal visits and volunteer–based programs are suspended for the next 30 days. Then, as the virus spread through Washington and New York, daily White House briefings displaced talk of Democratic primaries, and news broadcasts grew ominous, a corrections officer made an announcement on every cell block: On the inside, at Raleigh's Central Prison (CP), at first we joked about zombies and the apocalypse as cruise ships contaminated with the coronavirus found reluctant harbors.
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