White Collar Support Group: Coronavirus Updates from Prison
The writers are members of our White Collar Support Group that meets online on Zoom on Monday evenings. They are all currently in Federal Prison camps for white collar crimes. As they can’t attend support group meetings while they are in prison, we are in touch regularly on Corrlinks prison email. They each sent me prison coronavirus updates to post on prisonist.org. — Jeff Grant
Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc. is the world’s first ministry supporting the white collar criminal justice/economy exiled community. It hosts a White Collar Support Group meeting online on Zoom every Monday at 7:00 pm ET, 6:00 pm CT, 5:00 pm MT, 4:00 pm PT, information here. We will be hosting our 200th consecutive weekly meeting online on Monday, April 13, 2020.
Dear Family & Friends:
Some updates from XXX:
No visits will be allowed by family, friends and legal counsel for the next 30 days. After 30 days, it will be reevaluated. As a result, phone call minutes have been increased to 500 minutes per month vs the 300 we had. A modified staff ratio will be present on campus — currently we have the kitchen supervisor, one person in front in admin and then they call another person in from the men’s FCI when count is requested. Total skeleton operation. No one has been tested positive for Covid within the system which is good news. These measures are taken to ensure that the virus does not come from the outside.
Keeping you all in my thoughts and prayers. I’m ok. Please be careful too.
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Hi Jeff –
The XXX federal complex includes three prisons; High, Medium, and Camp. There are ~ 1,400 prisoners at the High, 350 at the Medium, and 150 at the Camp. Last Thursday a new prisoner with “flu-like” sumptons arrived at the High which caused all three prisons to go on lock-down pending the results of his test. However, Camp prisoners were required to go the Medium and High to cook meals for those prisoners. Campers were NOT allowed to go outside, but we were forced to work at the other two prisons. Very aggravating!!
Yesterday (Saturday) around 1p local time the prison staff announced the tests were negative, but the lock-down would remain in force through the weekend. Again, very aggravating! We have heard that the lock-down will end Monday.
The complex has implemented the BOP changes of 500 phone minutes and suspending visits for 30 days.
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March 15, 2020. Sunday
Dear Family and Friends
Friday, at 12:30pm, we were all recalled back to the Camp and told to remain in our rooms (they call it our ‘cells’, but I hate that term). We had no idea what was going on. And there we remained until 3:30pm at which time we were directed to the big TV room for a Town Hall with the Warden. Yes, the Warden. He spends most of his time across the street ‘behind the fence’ at the Medium, so we knew it was important.
The Warden announced the new BOP protocols to be proactive against the Corona Virus. All the steps seem logical, at least to me. I am sure the BOP put out a national press release about it. The initial 30 day restriction on visitation and volunteers from the outside make sense to me. That is not to say I am happy about it, but it needs to be done. However, the BOP increased our monthly phone allowance from 300 to 500 minutes to make up for the lack of visitation!
I am also glad they say they are going to put a halt on transfers between facilities for the next 30 days. That also makes sense. I do hope they will be vigilant with the CO’s who come and go every day, making sure they are not a source for introduction of the virus.
That said, this was not the big event for the week. And what I am about to tell you hasn’t happened here in the time I have been at El Reno, that is until now.
This past Wednesday, one of the Camp inmates committed suicide. He intentionally overdosed on his blood pressure and other medicines. This is very sad.
His name is XXX. And I can personally attest to the fact that XXX is a troubled soul. I, along with two others, shared a room with XXX for 4–5 months. I decided to move out of the room earlier this year (January) because I was at my wits-end and I knew that the longer I stayed the more I would become someone I didn’t like.
XXX is a very smart guy. He had been to state prison in California before his time in Federal Prison for identity theft/Social security fraud. He didn’t have too much longer to go on his sentence, but he was a very angry and bitter guy. He misplaced his blame on others and his anger and bitterness turned inward and his behavior became more and more anti-social.
I am certain that the administration here knew he needed help. He was constantly getting in trouble for one thing or another, for breaking rules that our children could have followed. Instead of helping him, or transferring him to a medical facility, they ignored him.
No one I talked to is really sure what set XXX off on Wednesday. Maybe it was just the culmination of small things that built up over time. I do know that he would tell any one who would listen “I am going to die in here. The BOP will never let me go.” The truth is XXX would have been out of here in 12–18 months, but he had convinced himself that he should have been allowed to leave sooner because of the FSA/Over 60 Home Confinement program, but the BOP was denying him out of spite. We will never know.
Was XXX disliked, yes he was. Did he do things intentionally to try and make those around him as miserable as he was, yes he did, constantly. But that isn’t the point.
It is so sad that XXX felt like he had no other option than to take his own life. Did some inmates try to help and counsel him, yes we did. Did some inmates pray with him, yes we did. Did inmates show him kindness and compassion, yes we did. But he could never see the light at the end of the tunnel. He couldn’t recognize that his life was of value, and he could never see or believe that he could make the world a better place.
I hope XXX has finally found peace.
Federal Bureau of Prisons Coronavirus Webpage: https://www.bop.gov/coronavirus/
Federal Bureau of Prisons COVID-19 Action Plan: https://www.bop.gov/resources/news/20200313_covid-19.jsp
Petition: HOME-CONFINEMENT TO LESSEN CAMPER’S EXPOSURE TO THE DEADLY COVID-19 VIRUS: http://chng.it/DF4JCGfh2b
Some Recent Articles About Prison and Coronavirus:
Prisonist.org: Scared White Collar Sh*tless: Reporting to Prison During the Coronavirus Pandemic, https://prisonist.org/scared-white-collar-shitless-reporting-to-prison-during-coronavirus-pandemic/
The Marshall Project: When Purell is Contraband, How Do You Contain Coronavirus? Handwashing and sanitizers may make people on the outside safer. But in prison it can be impossible to follow public health advice, https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/03/06/when-purell-is-contraband-how-do-you-contain-coronavirus
NPR: Prisons And Jails Worry About Becoming Coronavirus ‘Incubators’, https://www.npr.org/2020/03/13/815002735/prisons-and-jails-worry-about-becoming-coronavirus-incubators
CT Mirror: To contain coronavirus, release people in prison. Do not let Covid-19 become Katrina in Connecticut, https://ctmirror.org/category/ct-viewpoints/joseph-gaylin-noora-reffat-and-arvind-venkataraman/
Business Insider: US jails and prisons are ‘fertile grounds for infectious disease’ and preventing the spread of coronavirus behind bars will be a challenge, say experts, https://www.businessinsider.com/experts-keeping-prisons-free-of-coronavirus-will-be-a-challenge-2020-3
Prison Policy Initiative: No need to wait for pandemics: The public health case for criminal justice reform, https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/03/06/pandemic/
Government Executive: Federal Prison Employees and Others Question BOP’s Readiness for Coronavirus,https://www.govexec.com/management/2020/03/federal-prison-employees-and-others-question-bops-readiness-coronavirus/163692/
Republican American: Federal and state trials postponed in Connecticut due to virus concerns, https://www.rep-am.com/local/localnews/2020/03/12/federal-criminal-and-civil-court-trials-postponed-in-connecticut-due-to-virus-concerns/
Originally published at https://prisonist.org.
