In response to an individual here at CCI being diagnosed as potentially having covid-19 a strict lockdown status has been imposed. Meals are eaten in the cell, meds are delivered to the cell, and we are not allowed out of the cell. “Sometime soon”, we are being told, we will be offered to make a phone call. I’d also like to point out that since visits were cancelled, we have not been afforded the ability to place ” more phone calls” as Kevin Carr relayed to the public this past Monday. Yes, we are getting the two free calls, this is implemented from the phone company itself, but our overall number of calls per week remains at four.
A “communicable disease notice” was passed out to us yesterday evening, indicating an individual here has been diagnosed as potentially having covid-19. In the notice it tells us to “refer to the Disease Fact Sheet from the Wisconsin Division of Public Health” to see if we identify ourselves as being in one of the risk groups, or developed any of the symptoms as identified on the fact sheet. If so, we are to notify a staff member and request to see health services. This all sounds good, except for the fact that we here at CCI have received nothing such as this, or anything else detailing the signs or symptoms of this virus.
Some of the staff are wearing latex gloves, some are not. This morning the nurse came around delivering the controlled meds, she was not wearing any gloves. As for cell cleaning here, which Kevin Carr stated was being offered daily, CCI can say they have doubled our cleaning opportunities: from once every two weeks to once a week! We are not allowed, punished in fact, for having our cell windows open – literally a few hundred disciplinary write-ups have been written in the past few weeks regarding cell windows being open.
I’d like to comment on the canteen spend. Your newsletter is the first of us hearing about an increase in the weekly/biweekly spending limit. No notice of this was given to the inmate population. Frankly, I do not understand the purpose of such an increase, our families are currently not working, for the most part, so they do not have the funds to spend more money. All of these little things, free phone calls, more cleaning, higher spend limit, they all make it sound as if we are being helped in this situation, but looking at it in context no real effort is being put forth to actually make anything any better.
Thank you for this opportunity to help get the real facts out there. I understand that the times are hard for all of us here in this country, we have entered an unprecedented era. I hear everyday on the TV about certain things individuals are doing to come together in an effort to ease the stress, frustration, and fear that has become the abnormally new normal, and it is amazing. I just wish that we in here could get a fraction of such efforts, just a touch of honesty from those that oversee virtually every aspect of our lives. Get rid of the façade and give it to us, and our loved ones as it really is.